Secrets Outside of California
by Colette Amelia
Summary: #3 in the California Supernaturals trilogy (sequel to Secrets in the Woods of California) After weeks of guessing, Marina finally has the prophecy-only to realize she has no idea what it means. Her inability to choose a guy has made her relationships with Jet and Brad nothing short of icy. On top of that, the tribe still wants her. She thinks things can't get any worse-she's wrong.
1. Down Under

**Here it is! The final story in the California Secrets trilogy! This chapter is for everyone who wishes that H2O never ended :)**  
The sun was hot against my skin. I could feel the rays penetrating my flesh and seeping into my pores-pores that were absolutely loving the extra vitamin D. I wished I hadn't forgotten my sunglasses back at the house. Even with my eyes closed, the sun seemed to be able to fill my vision with a bright yellowish-orange color. But I didn't care how hot the sun was. In fact, I liked it because it beat the cooler temperatures California usually experienced during the month of January.  
"Hmm," I sighed, still delighting in the warmth of the sun on my skin, "Maybe I'll just move here with you."  
"I think I'd be okay with that."  
I opened my eyes and sat up. "Just okay?"  
Beside me, Bella pushed up onto her elbows and smiled. "Mm, yeah."  
"Wow," I said, pretending to be hurt, "We've only been apart for a month and a half and you've already replaced me as your best friend?"  
"Replaced you? Are you kidding? I've already forgotten you," Bella joked, "Cleo and Rikki are my best friends now."  
We stared at each other for a second before we both burst out laughing. Once we managed to get control of ourselves, Bella sighed and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.  
"Seriously though," she said, "Cleo and Rikki are great. You need to meet them."  
"I will," I said, looking away and out at the ocean. To tell the truth, it did kind of bother me that Bella had made two really good friends in the few short weeks she had lived in Australia. I hadn't met Cleo or Rikki yet, but from the way Bella talked about them they seemed cool. I was just afraid that when I did finally meet them, I would be the odd man out-after all, Cleo and Rikki were mermaids-just like Bella. For once in my life, I was the one who was different, the one who wasn't a part of the group.  
"How about we spend another hour on the beach here and then we can meet Cleo and Rikki over at the cafe for a drink," Bella suggested.  
"Okay," I said. I couldn't put off meeting them forever. Well, I knew Bella wasn't going to let me return to California without meeting them, and I had already been in Australia for two days-there was only five days left on my trip.  
As an early birthday present, my mom had given me a round trip ticket to visit Bella in Australia for a week. I was missing four days of school, and I couldn't be happier. School has basically been hell for me for the past month and a half. Jet barely talks to me anymore, and our lack of conversation only makes the whole lunch table awkward. Brad talks to me more than Jet, but not by much-I think he too is waiting for me to figure out who I want as a boyfriend. Even though he talks to me, things still aren't the way they used to be between us. I trust him completely-I know he would never reveal that I'm a shapeshifter, I would even go as far to say that he has accepted what I am-but, at the same time, I sometimes wonder if he trusts me.  
With everything in my social life so messed up, it would have been nice to be able to receive some normalcy at home, but, of course, that wasn't going to happen. Things at home were probably worse. With my dad gone, my whole family seemed to fall into a state of depression. We hardly talked to each other at dinner and afterwards we all retreated to our separate rooms. Christmas didn't come this year. No one really felt like celebrating. New Year's was the same way.  
It was absolutely unbearable, and I think the plane ticket to Australia was my mom's way of showing she knew I needed to get away for a little while. And, although I'd only been there for two days, I had basically forgotten all of my problems-well, I was trying really hard to.  
"So, I've been really trying to put this off," Bella started, "because I know it is a sore subject for you, but...how are Jet and Brad?"  
I closed my eyes for a minute before opening them again and facing Bella. I knew she would bring it up-it was only a matter of time-but that didn't stop me from hoping she wouldn't. "Okay, I guess," I said, "I don't really know."  
"What do you mean?" She asked, "Don't you seem them almost everyday?"  
"Yeah, but we don't really talk. They seem to have this agreement to hold me at arms length until I decide who I love." _Or love more_, my brain reminded me.  
"Oh," Bella said, looking down at her feet, which she attempted to bury in the sand, "I'm sorry."  
"Thanks," I said. It wasn't like they didn't talk to me at all though. We talked, our conversations just tended to center more on information such as what our homework was or what the hunters were up to-which, lately, was a whole lot of nothing-in other words, conversations completely void of emotion. For the first few days, when I got back to school, I tried to joke with Jet and Brad but neither of them seemed to find my jokes funny, and my laughing alone only made things more awkward.  
"Okay, so forget about the boys," Bella said, smiling again, "Tell me how you managed to escape your guard and hop on a plane over here."  
I rolled my eyes. "They literally watch me 24-7," I said, "They even had Tanner enroll in school so he could keep an eye on me while I'm there. I had to hide in the back seat of my mom's car while she took a bunch of detours so we wouldn't be followed on the way to the airport. It was awful, I almost got carsick."  
Bella made a face. "Ew," she said, "that's not fun."  
I shook my head. "It wasn't, but it was totally worth this," I gestured to the white sand, crashing waves, and her next to me, "And, I have a feeling that they weren't happy when they found out I disappeared."  
Bella laughed. "Probably not."  
I shrugged. "Oh well. I may be the one from this prophecy, but that doesn't mean I can't look out for myself. I mean, I survived for basically seventeen years without them being on guard."  
"Very true. Speaking of the prophecy," Bella started slowly, "Have you figured out what it means?"  
It was my turn to make a face. "No." It had been almost three months since Valerie sent me the prophecy and I still had no idea what it meant. At first I sat for hours each day trying to decifer the meaning and when I couldn't, I even considered taking it to Tanner or Henry or Rebekka or even Geoff before I remembered that I hated their guts.  
"Tell me again what it says. Maybe I can help," Bella said as she laid back down and closed her eyes.  
I too closed my eyes and recited what was written on the little piece of paper hidden in my bedroom back in California. "_When red tints Roe, the war of light will begin. Those of the rainbow will be the first plagued. Magus will bare them and fill the dark with fear. But one of many forms will ascend and change the course of fate for a brother Descendant. Together, the one will lead embracing light to fight. Only one can join the sun at dawn_."  
"Mm, kind of creepy, huh?" Bella said, "Okay, so let's take it one bit at a time. What about this 'red tints roe' part? What could that mean?"  
"I don't know!" I yelled-loud enough that a couple other people on the beach turned their heads in our direction. I had thought about, and looked at, the prophecy so much that now almost any mention of it made me want to tear my hair out.  
"Well, sometimes in poetry the color red is used to represent love, so maybe when love takes over roe...what is Roe anyway?" Bella said, sitting up again.  
I shrugged. "You got me."  
"Hmm, we'll figure that out later," she said, "so maybe red means love. Oh, or it could also mean blood...umm, let's just stick with the love idea though."  
"I think I'd like that better," I said, raising my eyebrows at her.  
Bella smiled. "Okay, great! So you've got possibilities now. At least that's something. How about a juice? Cleo and Rikki said they could meet us at the cafe in ten minutes."  
I sighed but gave in. "Alright, let's go."  
Bella's smile widened. We both stood up, brushing sand from our legs and grabbed our towels. Bella told me she first met Cleo and Rikki about two weeks ago on the night of a full moon. Apparently that was important but I didn't really understand the significance of that little fact. All I knew was that it was a mermaid thing-something I couldn't hope to understand. But apparently, Rikki wasn't too happy when she found out Bella told me everything. Bella also tried to explain what happened the night she met Cleo and Rikki with the...water tentacle, I think she called it? I don't know, but she lost me halfway through. Like I said, couldn't hope to understand.  
When Bella and I walked into the cafe-which was conveniently named Rikki's-a girl with long, brown hair waved Bella over to the corner table she was sharing with a slightly curly haired blonde. Cleo and Rikki I was sure.  
"Hey guys," Bella said, addressing the two girls, "This is my friend, Marina."  
"I'm Cleo," the brunette said, smiling at me.  
"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling back at her. Rikki didn't speak-she just stared at me- like she was trying to figure out if I was trustworthy or not.  
When Cleo realized Rikki wasn't going to say anything, she spoke up again. "And this is Rikki."  
I glanced at Rikki again but she still didn't say anything. Cleo scooted over to make room for Bella and I. There was an awkward silence that followed-for a bit longer than normal awkward silences-before Cleo broke it.  
"Marina," she said, grabbing my attention, "have you ever been to Australia before?"  
I shook my head. "I've actually never been outside the U.S. until now," I told her.  
"I've never been another country either," Cleo said, "What do you think of Australia so far?"  
"I-"  
"Bella said you were a shapeshifter, what exactly does that mean?" Rikki interrupted, speaking for the firt time. She was leaning over the table, her arms crossed in front of her.  
I have to admit she caught me off guard. I half expected her not to talk at all-to simply sit there staring at me and judging me. "Umm, well, it means I can turn into an animal."  
"And what animal can you turn into?" Rikki asked.  
"Actually I can turn into two animals," I said, glancing at Bella before looking back across the table at Rikki, "a wolf and a dolphin."  
"So you and Bella have been swimming together before?" Cleo asked, stopping Rikki before she could say something else-something I was sure I wasn't going to particularly like.  
I nodded, smiling at Cleo and ignoring Rikki's narrowing eyes. "Yeah, I really miss our swims together."  
"We should all go for a swim together later!" Cleo exclaimed, glancing between the faces around the table, "What do you guys think?"  
"Yeah, that'd be great!" Bella said, then she raised her hand, "Hey Will!"  
I turned my head to see a tall, _extremely_ good-looking boy with short blonde hair raise a hand and wave back to Bella. I immediately looked back in Bella's direction. "Who is _that_?" I demanded, not missing the way Bella's cheeks turned red or how she refused to hold my gaze.  
Bella never answered me though, because from behind me a distinctively male voice said, "Hey guys." I turned around to find the hot guy Bella had called Will standing at the end of our table.  
"Will, this is my friend from the States, Marina," Bella said.  
Will was wearing a pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt, no shoes. Over his shoulder he held a pair of flippers. He looked over to me and smiled-he had a nice smile. "Hey," he said, "nice to meet you."  
"You too," I said.  
"How was training this morning, Will?" Bella asked-a bit too quickly if you ask me-it sounded like she was just trying to stop him from leaving the table. I smiled to myself-Bella definitely had a crush on this guy-I just had to figure out if he shared the feeling.  
"Pretty good," he answered, "I set a new record for my 100m breast stroke. But of course, Sophie wasn't impressed. She wants me to do even better than that."  
I had no idea who Sohpie was or what Will was talking about, although it sounded like he was a swimmer-or perhaps a diver-that would explain the flippers. Of course, the mermaid would have a crush on the one guy who loved the water as much as she did.  
"Don't listen to Sophie," Bella said, smiling at Will, "Setting a new record is amazing."  
"Thanks," he said, "Well, I better go. I'm heading out to Mako Island to have another look at those caves this afternoon, you can join me if you want."  
"Oh I can't," Bella said immediately, "I promised Marina that I would take her to the marine park."  
I glanced at Bella, frowning slightly. No she didn't.  
"What do you want to go out there for anyway?" Rikki asked, pretty harshly.  
"I can't get what happened that night out of my head," Will said as wrinkles formed on his forehead, "I just want to have another look around."  
None of the three mermaids said anything but I could feel the worry and tension coming off of them-it was practically suffocating me. What were these caves Will was talking about? I felt like I had heard Bella mention Mako Island once before but I couldn't remember what she said about it.  
"See you later," Will said and walked away from our table.  
I glanced around at the three girls-they didn't look happy.  
"So much for our swim," Bella said.

**Because you guys always have amazing ideas about what should happen in Marina's stories, I have decided to have a contest where you can create a character that I will write into this book. There will be at least two separate groups of characters that I will use in the story. However, please keep in mind that I probably can't use all the characters, though I promise to do my best. I also reserve the right to slightly alter the submitted characters to better fit the plot.  
For the first group, I am specifically looking for characters that are shapeshifters. For the second group, I am looking for characters that are other types of supernaturals, but keep in mind that those submissions will not be used until later in the story. I will post the names of the characters I have chosen to include in each group at the end of a chapter.  
To submit a character, please fill out the form below and send it to me in a private message. If you are a guest, you can submit the completed form via a review. Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask. Thank you everyone and good luck! Start brainstorming some magical characters! :)**  
Open Character Submission Form  
Name:  
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	2. Kidnapped

**Sorry it took me so long to get another chapter out; it has been a very busy couple of weeks. Anyway, THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed and also thank you to everyone who submitted characters!**

**If you have any ideas (even if you already submitted a character) please feel free to submit more! I'm hoping to have my list of characters for the first group finalized by the next chapter. Also, if you visit my author page, I created a poll for everyone to vote, so please do! Thanks again and I hope everyone likes this chapter :)**

I thought the waters near California were pretty, but compared to the ones off the coast of Australia I couldn't have been more wrong. The ocean around Australia was like Miss Universe while California was like Miss State Fair. I didn't even know what I was missing. Over the next few days, I went swimming in those amazingly gorgeous waters with Bella, Cleo, and Rikki at least ten times. After the first time that was all I wanted to do. The three mermaids showed me to the cave on Mako Island that Will talked about—a place they called the moonpool. Rikki didn't seem too happy about me being there, but Bella and Cleo definitely didn't mind—besides, there seemed to be a lot of things Rikki didn't like. It didn't matter what Rikki thought though-all that mattered was what I thought—and I thought the moonpool was absolutely beautiful. The pool was in the center of a volcano, and when you looked up you could see the blue sky above. It was like a scope to the most pristine part of the sky. I was sure the view was absolutely stunning at night.

And, even with Rikki's standoffish attitude towards me—although she definitely hated Will more than she hated me—I found myself never wanting to leave Australia. I wanted to stay there forever, where my family, my friend, my boy, and my destiny problems didn't exist. What would happen if I did stay? Would the prophecy come true? Hell, I don't have a choice. I have to go back to America. I just hoped that here would be a possibility that the prophecy would change—whatever it meant. I mean, we're all supposed to be able to shape our own future, right? Why can't I can my destiny? And yet, a little voice in the back of my head kept telling me that the prophecy had been written over a thousand years ago and nothing had changed since then (except the language it was written in of course), so why would it change now? The answer was always the same: it wouldn't.

When the time came for me to leave, I had already been dreading the moment since the first day I arrived and saw Bella standing at the gate waiting for me. I just wished I didn't have to leave her behind. Until that moment I never knew what it was like for Bella—having to constantly say goodbye to people—not knowing when or if you'll ever see them again. But I knew I would see Bella again, I just wasn't sure when. It may be in one year, it may be in two, hell, it may be in five or ten years, but no matter what happened I knew I would see her again. That thought was all that was comforting me as I said goodbye to my best friend.

"I wish I didn't have to leave," I whispered in Bella's ear as I hugged her tight to me.

"Me neither," she said and hugged me tighter. I felt a tear soak through the back of my shirt but I didn't care. Bella's tank top was already splattered with my tears. I had to pull away when they announced that my flight was boarding. I could only smile at her—I didn't know what to say. What could I say? Goodbye? That didn't even seem close to being adequate.

"I'll see you soon?" I said, although it came out sounding more like a question than a reassurance.

Bella smiled, her blue eyes still wet with tears. "Very soon."

I looked over toward my gate-the line of people waiting to board the plane had already decreased—before turning back to Bella. "Talk to Will. You two make a cute couple," I said and winked at her.

Her mouth dropped open in bashful surprise. I smiled mischievously as I walked towards the gate.

"Wait!" I heard Bella call over my shoulder.

I turned to find her running towards me.

"Don't let Jet and Brad give you the cold shoulder," she said seriously, "You were friends with both of them before any of you decided to become more than that. They should at least treat you like you're their friend." She smiled at me again before she pulled me close, embracing me once more. When we stepped apart she added, "And when you do decide who is _the one_,make sure you're following your heart."

I smiled wide at her and then pursed my lips together to keep from crying.

Bella rolled her eyes. "I'm corny, I know," she laughed, then looked me straight in the eye, "But I mean it."

I laughed again.

"Final boarding call for Flight 1067 for direct service to Los Angeles, California." The flight attendant sounded over the intercom system.

"You better go," Bella said.

"Bye."

"Bye."

I turned away and handed my ticket to the attendant. Walking down to the plane I felt my eyes fill with tears again. It was going to be a _long _flight.

When I landed in California hours later, I was pretty sure the puffiness surrounding my eyes had finally disappeared and the whites of my eyes were no longer streaked with red. I departed the plane, completely exhausted from the fifteen hour flight and ready to snuggle under the warm covers of my own bed. I aimlessly wandered down the corridor of the Los Angeles Airport, texting my mom to tell her that I had landed. A few seconds later, my phone dinged with a new message from my mom: "Be there in fifteen minutes". Reading the text I gathered that either Skye or Cole—or both—were in the car with her. My mom had trouble texting "okay". My dad was the more technologically advanced parent—he always thought he was so cool when he texted us to come downstairs for dinner.

That was when I remembered my dad wouldn't be at the table for dinner that night—or tomorrow night, or the night after that. The worst part about my dad being taken to the tribe was that we didn't know when…or if he would come back to us. We didn't even know where the tribe was to go and visit him. All I knew was that the tribe was located somewhere in the mountains, but there were hundreds, probably thousands, of mountains on the west coast. And who knew? The tribe may even be on the east coast—or Canada. In other words, searching for the tribe would be a hopeless mission. All I could do was keep hoping that they would release him and he would return to us. It had been almost three months since I last saw my dad, and I've missed him every day.

I felt like I was sleepwalking through the airport as I found my way to the baggage claim. As I watched the carousal go round, occasionally spitting out people's luggage, I thought about what Bella told me before I left. She was right of course. I should confront Jet and Brad about at least treating me like a friend—not some random person they know because we have a class together. I was just afraid that they would toss me aside completely if I did that. And I couldn't lose them. That was one of the reasons why I hadn't picked one yet—besides of course the fact that I didn't know which guy I loved more—I knew that once I picked a guy, I would lose the other one, and I couldn't deal with that. I loved both of them and I wanted both of them in my life. But, as the popular saying goes, you can't always get what you want.

Spotting my red suitcase rounding the corner and heading my way, I ran forward, pushing through the other people from my flight. "'Scuse me, 'scuse me," I said as politely as I could—but let's face it—I was exhausted and therefore extremely cranky. Reaching for my bag, I heaved it off the raised carousal and onto the linoleum floor. Finally. I could go home.

I checked the time—I still had about ten minutes before my mom arrived—the airport had gotten my luggage off the plane faster than I anticipated. I noticed a row of chairs next to one of the nearby doors. I could wait there until my mom called me. I pulled up the handle of my suitcase and began walking towards the exit. I was about halfway there when I felt someone walking behind me—oddly _close_ behind me. Stopping, I took a side step and addressed the man who was practically on my heels.

"You can go ahead of me," I said, the annoyance in my voice clear.

Except the man didn't walk by me, instead, he stopped so that he was standing right next to me. "I'd prefer to walk _with_ you," the man said.

I frowned—something wasn't right about this man. He looked normal enough, maybe mid to late twenties. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans with a Los Angeles Kings hat on his head. But, for some reason—it was probably his creepy comment—he was making my heart beat fast, and not in a good way.

He reached his hand on and grabbed my arm just above my elbow. Yeah—heart definitely not beating a good way.

Eyes wide, I shook my arm out of the man's grip. "You have no idea who you're messing with," I told him, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I couldn't handle this now. I needed to get home—that was all I wanted—for things to be normal again. Why couldn't this creeper just leave me alone? For the first time since the chief assigned them to watch me, I wish I had my guard there. I had a strange feeling that I might be needing their protection. But, then again, if worse came to worse, _I was a wolf_.

There was a glint in the man's eyes as he looked me over. "Actually," he said mysteriously, "I think I do." Slowly, and deliberately, he lifted his shoulders, placing his hands on his hips and revealing a small—but certainly effective—handgun hidden at the waist of his jeans.

_Well,_ I thought, _clearly airport security is not as strict as everyone thinks it is_.

The man put his arms back down at his sides. "Now that we're both clear of the situation, here's what's going to happen," the man said as he leaned closer to me again and I felt him place his arm over my shoulders, "We're going to walk out of here together and you are going to act like nothing is wrong. You are going to smile and nod to anything I say and if you scream I'll start shooting. Do you understand?"

I plastered a smile on my face and nodded, because, what choice did I have? There was no way I was going to get shot again. All I could hope for was that this guy would take me someplace private where I could turn into my wolf and attack him. No sane person would believe one guy if he said a girl turned into a wolf.

The man smiled. "That's a good girl."

We walked towards the doors together—me still pulling my suitcase. When we got outside I wondered if my mom was here yet—I prayed that she was—more people against this man would help. Or, maybe it wouldn't. He did have a gun after all, and I certainly didn't want anyone else getting shot and killed.

The man guided me to the right, where, at the end of the lane, was a navy silver minivan with tinted windows. _Crap_. The van was your typical "child abduction" vehicle, but it was close enough that I knew to be scared of what would happen to me if I got inside. Even though I knew he had a gun I couldn't help it—I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of the van.

The man didn't like that. He immediately moved his arm off of my shoulder and pressed his hand against my back instead—trying to push me forward. "Don't mess this up now, Marina," he said, "We're so close, and don't forget the consequences if you don't move."

I slowly shuffled forward towards the van and out of the corner of my eye I saw the man smile. When we reached the side door of the van, the man slid open the door and pushed me inside, closing the door again before I could even process that I was no longer out in the open...or that I was not alone in the van. _Crap_—again. I hadn't expected for this guy to have backup. But before I could make a move for the door or window or grab something to strike the other men in the van with, the one beside in the seat grabbed my arms and held them down at my sides, tight. One of the men in the backseat reached forward and placed his hand over my mouth while the other man pulled something out of his pocket.

I tried to scream. I tried to break free. I failed. Within the next two seconds the syringe was stuck in my bare arm—its contents emptying into my body. Soon, my vision began to blur. I felt dizzy and I swayed in my seat. Something was definitely wrong with me. What had they given me? What was in that—?

But I didn't even get to finish my thought because in the next second, my vision disappeared completely and I passed out.


	3. The Tribe

**Thank you for the reviews, and en extra thank you to anyone to submitted a character! Also, please, please, please visit my author page to vote in my poll. It is at the very top of the page and anyone can vote. I want to know what you guys think! :)**

I wanted it to be a dream, just one long, impossibly horrible, nightmare, so that when I woke up I would be in my own bed or even still on the plane headed for Los Angeles. More than anything I did not want to wake up and find myself in that silver minivan. But I did.

When my eyelids fluttered open, still feeling heavy from my medically induced sleep I saw that it was dark out—whether or not a night had come and gone already I didn't know—I had no idea how much time had passed or where the hell I was. And, given the darkness surrounding me I had a good feeling that looking out the window wasn't going to help me figure it out. The only thing I did know was that whoever had taken me knew who I was—or, at least they knew my name. But, the question was, who were they?

Very slowly, I sat up in my seat, taking in my surroundings—including the pair of handcuffs attached to my wrists. I immediately noticed that the man who had taken me from the airport lobby was in the driver's seat, navigating the van through what looked like a very dense forest, but it was hard to tell because he was driving without any headlights. I glanced around the van—counting the number of people in it—six, including myself. Five men. Five big, strong men to capture one seventeen year old girl? It didn't make sense. Unless…unless these men knew that I was a shapeshifter.

I felt my heartbeat start to pick up out of fear. If these men knew I was a shapeshifter then I was in more trouble than I thought. What if they were hunters? I knew Brad would have never told his family and friends about me, but what if they somehow discovered my secret on their own? Brad's mom, Helen, had been the one to shoot me a couple months back in the woods—what if she heard about me missing a bunch of days of school that same week and put two and two together? Either way, if these guys were hunters and knew what I was, then did Brad know they had taken me? Was he trying to come up with a plan to let me escape at this very moment? But, would he go against his family and life-long friends just for me?

I deflated inside. He probably wouldn't, especially since he wasn't happy with me for not being able to choose between him and Jet. Even after all he did for me last fall—knocking his own mother unconscious, taking me to the hospital, lying to his entire family (including other hunters he'd known his whole life), and of course not telling anyone my secret—I couldn't imagine that he would betray his loved ones for me. I wished he would, but I wasn't so sure I would if I were in his shoes.

"Ah," came a voice from the front seat, "You're awake."

I jerked my head up to see who was talking to me. The voice sounded familiar—I had definitely heard it before—but it wasn't the voice of the man who had taken me from the airport. This voice was coming from the man in the passenger seat and it made chills skate up my spine. My eyes strained to make out the face of this man in the dark. Who—?

"Stephen," I whispered through the blackness. Even though I could barely make out his features, I could see his face break out into a smile at the sound of his name.

"I have to say Marina," Stephen started, "running away to Australia like you did was not your best move. I thought you'd be smarter than that."

I had planned on simply glaring at him before I realized that probably wasn't effective given the lack of lighting. "It got me away from the overprotective eye of the tribe for a little while," I shot back—my fear had almost completely disappeared at this point, replaced by annoyance.

"Yes, but see the chief didn't like that," Stephen said, "He ordered Geoff and Rebekka to watch you, and they couldn't very well do that with you disappearing to another country, could they?"

"That was kind of the point," I said.

"Exactly. There was a reason you were being watched," Stephen explained, "The chief thinks you need to be protected and—"

"You don't?" I asked, cutting him off.

He ignored my question. "_And_ the fact that you were able to evade the shifters assigned to protect you—"

"You don't believe I'm this 'one of many forms', do you?" I asked, leaning forward.

"_You evading your protection detail proved to the chief that he was—" _Stephen tried again in clipped tones.

"No, that's not it," I said, smiling. I was glad I was getting under his skin, "You don't even believe in the prophecy."

"_Proved that he was wrong to leave you in California_!" he finally finished, at that point so frustrated that he was on the verge of shouting. The other men in the van began to stir—he had definitely woken them up.

"Wait," I said, realizing the meaning of what Stephen just told me, "where are you taking me? Are you taking me to the chief?"

It was Stephen's turn to smile. "Under the orders of the chief, you are to live in the tribe until the events described in the prophecy have taken place."

"But that could be years!"

"The chief is aware of this," Stephen said simply.

"My dad made a deal with Sebastian," I argued, "I could stay at home in California if he returned to the tribe instead."

"That deal was made under the context that you would remain in California under the protection of Geoff and his family. You broke the deal as soon as you boarded that plane to Australia." Stephen turned around to face forward again.

"I'm still a minor, you know. You can't just take me away from my home without permission from a parent," I pointed out, "That's called _kidnapping_."

"Not if we're saving your life by doing so," he said.

"But that wasn't your decision to make."

Stephen shrugged. "I didn't make the decision."

I stared at him. "You really don't believe I'm the one, do you?"

Stephen whirled back around to look me in the eye. "I think you're a spoiled little brat who thinks that everyone and everything in the world should revolve around her and does anything to make that happen regardless of who gets cut down in the process."

I was silent for a minute. When I spoke again, my voice was barely a whisper. "Does this have anything to do with Brett and Bryn?" I asked.

Stephen faced the front dashboard again but didn't say anything.

"I'm really sorry about what happened to them," I said softly, "I never wanted that."

Stephen still didn't talk. The entire van was silent for the rest of the ride.

As far as I could tell, the road ahead of us didn't change for at least an hour. After that we began to climb uphill. I looked outside but saw nothing but trees. I still had no idea where we were or even what time it was. All I knew was that it was deep enough into the night that the color of the sky hadn't changed since I woke up. I wanted to ask when we would get there, or, again, where we were going, but I got the sense that conversation was currently outlawed.

As I gazed out the window, I wondered what the tribe would be like. The statement about it being in the mountains that Henry said when we first met was obviously true—well, my conclusion about that was solely based on the fact that our altitude was increasing, but I had a pretty good feeling I was right. The question was, what mountains? I was sure that even if it were light out, I wouldn't have been able to discern what forest the trees around me belonged to or what mountain range we were driving through.

After about another hour—although I couldn't be sure since they had taken my phone and there didn't seem to be a clock on the dashboard—the van began to slow down. I stared ahead, wondering why we were slowing. The area didn't look any different, and I couldn't see anything ahead of us—anything except pure blackness. I wondered how the driver could even see the road. I could make out maybe a few feet of dirt before it looked like we had met the end of the Earth and if we went any further we would fall off into oblivion.

Then, all of a sudden, a shape began to form in front of the van. It got closer and closer—or, rather, _we_ got closer and closer to it—and the closer we got the bigger I realized this shape was. Whatever it was, it seemed to cover the entire width of the road, and maybe even beyond that. Was it a barricade? But why would it be there of all places, blocking the road? Had we made it? Was this the tribe?

The van rolled forward until we came to a complete stop in front of the barricade, and that was when I realized it wasn't just a barricade to block the road—it was a fence—the biggest friggin' fence I had ever seen. It was made out of the trunks of the same trees that surrounded us, towering at least thirty feet in the air. If the chief expected people to feel welcomed by coming here and seeing this huge fence, then he was out of his mind. Because a fence that big screamed one thing and one thing only—prison.

And I was about to enter that prison.

Very slowly, almost as trying to increase dramatic effect, an opening appeared in the fence to let the van through. We drove into the small opening and I couldn't help but look back over my shoulder at the freedom I would be leaving behind for who knew how long. Turning back around, I stared at what lied ahead–which, looked to be nothing more than trees. Maybe we weren't at the tribe yet? Although I had never been to the tribe and didn't know very much about it, I had always imagined it as your typical small town, complete with a single food market, schoolhouse, and maybe post office. But, like I said, inside the fence didn't look any different from outside the fence.

The man who had taken me–who would probably be forever known to me as the man who took me from the airport and thus took me away from my semi-normal life–guided the van to the left and slowed to a stop. At first I thought I was hallucinating–having been looking into nothing but darkness for the past couple hours–but after another couple seconds I realized that the light coming towards us was definitely a light, a torch in fact. Have they never heard of a flashlight?

_Crap._ When they said they lived in a tribe they didn't actually mean in the wild, did they? I could only live in the forest for a long period of time if I remained in my wolf form, and, while running around with four legs was amazing, I also liked being human from time to time.

The man holding the torch approached us. He was wearing a long cloak that fell past his ankles, dragging on the ground. He looked like he had just come from the set of a Harry Potter movie or something. Was this how people in the tribe normally dressed?

Stephen and the man who took me from the airport both got out of the van and greeted the man holding the only source of light. Stephen then turned back to open the sliding door for me (and the three men in the backseat with me) to get out as well.

"Don't even think about running," he warned, blocking the opening in the van, "even if you could get over this wall there is no where to run. You'd die of starvation or freeze to death before you made it to any civilization. Got it?"

I nodded in understanding–_well, there goes Plan A_. Stephen stepped aside to let me out. Hopping out of the van, I was immediately met with the coldest blast of air I had probably ever felt in my life. Something crunched beneath my feet when I stepped out, and I looked down–snow. The entire floor of the forest was covered with what looked like a fresh coat of snow. I had only seen snow once in my lifetime. The closest we ever came to it at home was a layer of frost on an early winter morning, but that melted away as soon as the sun was fully risen. The fact that there was this much snow on the ground meant that we had travelled north–how far, I had no clue.

I shivered against the bitter cold–my sneakers, capris, and t-shirt weren't exactly going to cut it in this weather. Without a word, the man who took me from the airport set a heavy winter jacket over my already frozen shoulders.

"Thank you," I said.

"This way," said the man with the torch, speaking for the first time. He turned and began walking back in the direction he came, indicating that we should follow. While I was frowning at this man with the strange get-up, none of my kidnappers seemed to find him or his actions odd and began to follow. Stephen gestured that I should do the same, so I did. I mean what else was I going to do? Sit out in the snow and pitch blackness and freeze my butt off? I didn't think so.

I wasn't sure how long we walked but it was long enough for me to lose all feeling in my feet so that I was literally stumbling through the snow like a drunken idiot. It was a great way to show these people who they'd chosen to be their "savior". I hoped that the chief would see me this way and send me home, convinced there was no way I could help him or any other shapeshifter.

After a little while, block-like shapes began to form next to the path ahead of us. The little light we had illuminated what looked like a few log cabins. _Thank God, _I wasn't going to have sleep in a cave. Whether or not I would have to sleep on the floor was still up in the air. We walked towards the buildings and I noticed the path we were following was beginning to widen. I passed one of the cabins and came to a stop with everyone else. Gazing around I quickly realized that the man in the cloak's torch was no longer the only light in the area. A single soft light emanated from each of the log cabins–cabins that seemed to stretch out in all directions. We were standing in a town square, which was clearly the center of a thriving community.

"Well," Stephen said, "welcome to the tribe Marina."

**And now, just as I promised I will announce the characters that will appear in the story anytime over the next four chapters…**

**Thank you to **_Doveflight_ **for the submission of the character **Fawn**, and thank you to **_CelticH2O_** for the submission of the character **Drew**. Both of these characters will appear in the story very soon!**

**If your character was not chosen, don't fret. It means that he or she will appear in the story later on. So far, there hasn't been a character that I haven't been able to fit into the storyline. **

**I AM still accepting character submissions, so if you have an idea please send it to me! Although, from here on out I will ask for only characters that are supernaturals other than shapeshifters or mermaids (or mermen). Thank you again to everyone who has already submitted and congratulations to **_Doveflight _**and **_CelticH2O_**, I hope I can do your characters justice! :)**


	4. One with Two

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You guys are the best! Once again, PLEASE vote in the poll I created. And, as always, enjoy!**

Not only did I get to stay in one of the log cabins—with two guards stationed outside the front door and one that circled the cabin all night—but I also got to sleep in a real bed. And, despite my imprisonment, laying in the bed was the best feeling in the world, because, let me tell you, being unconscious in the backseat of a van for an unknown number of hours and then hiking through snow in the dark leaves you with more aches than I bothered to count.

The next morning breakfast was brought to my cabin, where I was told that the chief would meet with me in an hour. In the meantime, I was allowed to explore the town—as long as I was accompanied by one of my guards. If I was really going to be in the tribe for years, I wondered how long it would be before I was allowed to walk around on my own. The sooner I could be alone, the sooner I could start planning my escape.

Once I had finished my breakfast of a banana and cheerios, the man who had taken me from the airport entered my cabin.

"Good morning, Marina," he greeted me, all pleasantries now, "I apologize for what we had to put you through yesterday."

I didn't say anything. I just stared at the guy, trying to convey to him without words how much I hated him for what he did.

"I never got the chance to introduce myself," he continued, clearing his throat awkwardly. I was getting under his skin—good. "My name is Taz. I am here to give you your tour."

I still didn't respond to him. I knew I was being petty, but he _was_ the person who basically ruined my life—not that it wasn't ruined already—he just ruined it more. I silently walked into the other room to get dressed.

I discovered my suitcases sitting next to the counter of the small kitchenette in the common area of the cabin early this morning. Someone had been considerate enough to think that I might like to wear my own clothes—I'm guessing that person was Taz, because it certainly wasn't Stephen—along with three pairs of jeans, two long sleeve t-shirts and a sweatshirt that said "University of Arizona" on it. Also, very thoughtful of Taz considering I only had one pair of jeans and a sweater in my suitcase—I hadn't needed winter clothing in Australia—it was summer there, and I certainly hadn't planned on coming here afterwards. Not only did he think to bring me warmer clothes but they even looked to be my size. I wondered where he had gotten them—probably stole them from some girl my age.

I pulled on the "University of Arizona" sweatshirt and my own jeans, quickly brushing my hair. While I wasn't excited to be in the tribe, I was actually kind of excited to see it. Part of me had always wondered what life in the tribe would be like—now I was going to get the chance to find out for myself. I walked back out in the living area where Taz was waiting for me.

He stared at me, observing my choice of clothing. I noticed a small smile slip on his face for a second before it disappeared. "I brought you some snow boots to wear too," he said, holding up a pair of furry, black boots.

"Thanks," I said, deciding I couldn't give him the silent treatment forever—if I was stuck here I wasn't going to make myself miserable by refusing to talk to anyone. I grabbed the boots out of his hands, "Where did you get all these clothes?"

He paused, seemingly debating whether or not to answer my question truthfully. "They were my sister's."

"How old is your sister?" I asked as I shoved my right foot into the corresponding boot. My toes hit the front of the boot—they were a bit small, but I figured they would be—I have pretty big feet.

"She was sixteen when she died," he said.

I stopped mid-boot. "Oh," I said, making a face, "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "That was almost three years ago," he said, then changed the topic, "You ready to go?"

I nodded, finishing the laces on my second boot, but still thinking about Taz's sister. I wondered what happened to her. Had she gotten sick? Or maybe hunters got her? Did they even have hunter problems so deep in the mountains? It was hard to believe that anyone could find the tribe way up here.

Pulling on the jacket Taz lent me last night (and hadn't asked for back) over the sweatshirt, I followed him out into the frigid mountain air. It wasn't as cold as it had been last night but it was still colder than I was used to. Unlike when I first arrived, the town square area was alive and bustling this morning. People were walking here and there, carrying various things in their arms, kids were jumping rope, and some teens were off to the side simply observing the scene like I was. I noticed some people wearing the same cloaks the man with the torch had last night, only, in the full light of the day, I could see that they weren't exactly cloaks—they were more like glorified bathrobes.

"This way," Taz said, gesturing to the left. I walked beside him along the dirt path to the center square. Looking around, it seemed like the path branched off from there in all directions.

"How big is this place?" I asked.

"I don't know the exact measurements," Taz said, "but the town is shaped like a fractal."

"A what?"

"A fractal," he said as if I should know what it meant, "You know, it's a mathematical—" He cut off when he saw my disgusted face—I was beginning to think Taz was a bit of a geek. He sighed. "Basically, you have the square in the middle, then there are squares off of each of the corners, and squares off of those corners, and so on. So you can live off of either the North, South, East or West corner."

"Which corner is my cabin a part of?" I asked.

"The Western one," Taz answered, and then pointed across the quad, "The chief's home is in the Eastern corner, as well as the council building, which is basically where they handle all the administrative stuff."

I made a mental note to avoid that area of the tribe as much as possible. I wanted to avoid the chief as much as possible because I was afraid if I was around him too long I just might punch him in the face.

"Very few families live in the Eastern square," Taz was explaining when I returned my focus to him, "It's considered the 'wealthier' area of town, although you can't really have wealth here, just power." He said it with a certain amount of disgust in his tone of voice. "Most people live in either the Northern or Western corners."

"Where do you live?" I asked him.

He ignored my question and moved on with my tour. He led me away from the entrance to the Western corner towards what my navigational skills told me was the Northern corner. As we walked around the outer edge of the main square, Taz pointed out buildings to me. "That's the market, and that's the shoemaker, and the general clothing store, and the movie theater. They show a new movie every week," he said, glancing at me as if that bit of information might excite me. I didn't respond. "Over there is the training facility—I think you'll be going there later—and then the elementary school, middle school, high school. The flower shop, furniture store, craft store, and post office."

"You guys have a post office?" I asked, unable to hide my interest. If I was able to a letter out to my family telling them where I was then maybe I could get out of here sooner.

Taz stopped and turned to me, frowning. "Don't even think about it," he said, reading my mind, "They would never allow you to send a letter out."

I hung my head a bit, but—now that I was thinking clearly—I realized I hadn't really expected the tribe to allow me to use their postal service. We continued walking around the square. When we passed by the entrance to the Southern, I asked, "What's down there, Taz?"

"Mostly just fields and training facilities for new shifters and the Guard," he said, dismissing the topic.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a girl off to the side watching me. She had long, flowing, red hair and was wearing a long-sleeve white dress. Her legs were bare and I wondered how she wasn't freezing to death. My eyes were drawn to her one knee where a large, jagged scar interrupted her otherwise flawless skin.

Actually, she wasn't the only one staring at me. There were a group of teenagers—mostly boys—surrounding her, who were also staring me down. I could see why they circled her—she was very pretty—but, from the way she was looking at me, I got the feeling that she wasn't the nicest person in the world. When our eyes met I saw nothing but hate and I quickly looked away. I had a feeling she wasn't going to be my friend while I was here.

"Who's that?" I asked Taz, trying to subtlety point at the red-head.

Taz looked over and scowled. "That's Fawn," he said, "She's nice if you're in her friend group but if not, forget it—she's a huge bitch."

I glanced over at Fawn again. "I don't think she likes me," I said to Taz.

"I wouldn't take it personally. There are a lot of people she doesn't like."

"Hi Taz!" Fawn called, raising her hand to him and purposely placing a flirty smile on her face.

I raised my eyebrow. "She clearly likes you," I said, smiling a bit.

Taz glared at me. "She's not my type and besides, she only likes me for the power I hold."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

He glanced at me—he seemed hesitant to answer my question. "The chief is my father."

"What?" I asked, completely taken aback.

"I knew you would react like that," he said, "I know you're not exactly fond of him."

"That's an understatement," I muttered under my breath, but Taz heard me.

"Well, I'm not exactly fond of him either," he said, "I'm supposed to take over the role of chief when I turn twenty-five."

I pictured Taz as the leader of the tribe and smiled. I didn't know him that well but I thought he'd make a good chief—a hell of a lot better than Sebastian. "How old are you now?" I asked.

"Twenty-three," he answered and I smiled—not that it wasn't clear before, but there was no way he would go for a girl like Fawn—she looked to be about sixteen, closer to my own age. "The chief was supposed to start training me to take over his position when I turned twenty but he never did. I don't think he is going to relinquish control to me when I turn twenty-five either."

"You should talk to him," I said, "You'd make a great leader."

"Thanks," he said.

A tall woman with fading blonde hair pulled into a tight bun, walked up to us, two men trailing behind her. "Is this her, Theodore?"

It took me a minute to realize that this woman was talking to Taz.

"Mom, don't—" Taz started.

"Theodore," the woman said impatiently, "Is this her?"

I couldn't decide to be more shocked that Taz's real name was Theodore or that this uptight, slightly evil-looking woman was his mother and the chief's wife.

"Yes," Taz relented.

His mother turned to address me. "Marina, my name is Yvette," she said with a tone of superiority as she thrusted her hand out in front of me to shake.

I took it hesitantly, but Yvette looked pleased—well, as pleased as someone with a permanent bitch face could look. I watched as Yvette's eyes travelled down the length of my body and then back up to my face.

"You don't look like much," she commented, her eyes narrowing, "What are the animals that you can turn into again?"

I glanced at Taz before answering. "A wolf and a dolphin," I said.

"Show me."

"Excuse me?" I asked, my eyes widening. I wondered if I had heard her right.

"Mom—" Taz tried but Yvette cut him off again.

"This has nothing to do with you, Theodore," she said, not even looking in his direction, "You heard me. Shift. Now."

"But it's freezing out here. Can't we go inside where it's warmer?" I asked, losing my conviction.

"No. I want you to shift, right here, right now."

I didn't move. This woman may be Taz's mom but she was clearly insane.

She tapped her foot. "I'm waiting," she sang.

I smiled at her. "And you're going to keep waiting, cause I'm not shifting in this cold."

Her foot stopped moving and she narrowed her eyes at me. "They warned me you were stubborn." Then, leaning in close, she whispered, "Do not test me, girl. You are on my turf now, and trust me when I say I can make your life a living hell."

"I don't care what you do, you're crazy if you think I'm shifting out here," I responded.

"I'm sure you don't, but, you know, it would be a real shame if something were to _accidentally _happen to your father." She stepped back and smiled—an evil witch smile I might add.

"Where is he?" I asked desperately.

Yvette put an expression of mock pity on her face. "Oh," she sighed, "If you shift, _maybe_ I'll tell you."

"Marina," Taz said, "you don't have to do this."

I began to undress, removing the boots and Taz's jacket—it was really damn cold.

Yvette's smile widened. "You have five seconds or I'm not telling you," she said simply.

"What?" I asked, completely frazzled, "I have to undress first otherwise—"

"Five, four—"

"You're insane!"

"Three, two—"

Ignoring the fact that I still had basically all my clothes on, I shifted into my wolf form. The sound of fabric shredding filled my ears—my gut wrenched—I hadn't shifted with my clothing on since the siren had taken control of me last year. And yet, somehow, this felt a hell of a lot worse than that had.

When I looked up, Yvette lips were pursed together. She shrugged. "Hmm, not bad," she said, "And the dolphin?"

What? She didn't actually expect me to turn into a marine animal in the middle of a dirt path, did she? By the look on her face, I could tell she did. This woman was pure evil. How she could be Taz's mother I had no clue.

"Mom, no," Taz said strongly, taking hold of his mother's wrist, "You saw her wolf, you can see her dolphin later."

She shook off her son's grasp. "No, Theodore, I can't. I need proof that she is the one in the prophecy." She stared at me. "Five—"

I didn't even let her get to four. I shifted into my dolphin form. It was the worst shift I had ever experienced. I laid there, in the dirt, my slick skin desperately trying to absorb the bit of water in the few patches of snow. This time, I counted to five in my head before I shifted back into human form, hugging myself tightly.

I heard snickering coming from behind me. I strained my neck to see who it was—Fawn and her friends. I immediately turned back to Yvette, my cheeks burning in embarrassment.

"That was cruel," Taz said to his mother.

She showed no emotion. "It was necessary," she said, then threw one of the robes that I had noticed a few others wearing at the ground in front of me, "Here."

With that, Yvette stepped to the side and began to walk away, leaving me there, shivering in the dirt.

"Wait!" I called to her, quickly pulling the robe around my body, "Where is my father?"

She laughed at me. "You didn't really think I would tell you, did you?" Then she turned and strode down towards the opposite end of the square.


	5. Greetings

**Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who reviewed! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter!**

I wanted to cry. But I couldn't. I couldn't give Yvette or Fawn, or anyone else, that satisfaction. Holding the robe tight around my body and ignoring the pile of shredded fabric that used to be my clothes, I turned and headed back in the direction of my cabin. The little excitement I'd had for seeing the tribe had vanished.

"Marina!" Taz called after me but I didn't respond.

I didn't turn around, I just kept walking. With every step I took, I felt more and more water build up in my eyes. I walked faster—I had to get inside the cabin before the water burst from the seams. I was on the verge of running when I reached the path to the west corner. I could make it. Everything would be okay—except everything would not be okay because I was still a prisoner in the tribe. The only way things would be okay again was if I escaped and somehow made it home.

I closed my eyes. Who knew when that would happen? It was only my first day at the tribe and I was already miserable. If today was any indication of what the rest of my time here would be like I didn't know how I was going to survive.

I was jolted out of my thoughts—quite literally—when my body collided with someone else's, causing both myself and the other person stumble.

''Watch it!" exclaimed a harsh female voice.

''Sorry, I—" I cut off when I looked up to see who I'd run into. I was looking at Fawn, and yet, that wasn't possible because I knew I'd left Fawn laughing hysterically back in the square. The girl standing in front of me was an exact replica of Fawn except for two things. The first was the length of her hair. Instead of long, flowing, red hair like Fawn, this girl's hair was cut short—really short. It was so short that it could have been a boy's haircut—a pixie cut I think the proper term is. The second was that on the left side of this girl's nose was a diamond stud. I assumed the crystal was a fake, but id couldn't be sure. Despite these small differences there was no doubt about it—this girl was Fawn's sister—most likely her twin. I did my best to swallow my tears and force a smile on my face—I couldn't have everyone hate me.

"Hi—" I started but again didn't finish my sentence.

"You're wearing my robe," the girl said pointing to the front pocket of the robe where a word was inscribed in gold thread.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said, ''I can give it back to you if you follow me to my cabin so I can change into some real clothes."

The girl shook her head. "No, it's not like I'll ever get to use it," she said with a mix of sadness and bitterness in her voice.

Still trying to be friendly, I smiled at her. "I'm Marina by the way."

The vulnerability I'd seen on her face a moment ago disappeared. She stared at me for a minute before she pointed at the robe again and said, "Well, you can read, can't you?" With that she flattened the hem of her shirt and pushed past me.

_So much for making friends_. Looking down, I pulled on the fabric of the robe to flatten out the cursive lettering. _Fallon_? Well, whatever her name was, she clearly wasn't any nicer than her twin.

I wondered what she meant by not being able to use the robe. Could she not wear it because I had worn it or something like that? If so then that was a pretty stupid reason. I would just give it back to her. If someone pointed me to a washing machine I would even wash it for her before I gave it back. Climbing the steps to the small porch outside my cabin, I resolved to do just that. Maybe then Fallon wouldn't think I was so bad.

I wasn't sure why but it really bothered me how Fawn and Fallon almost immediately decided they didn't like me. I wasn't used to being hated. In fact, I couldn't remember a time when someone had disliked so much when they'd only just met me. I shouldn't have cared...but I did. I wanted to have someone on my side, someone who wasn't already straddled between his duties to the tribe as its future leader and his duty to me as a decent human being. And frankly, if I was going to stay here awhile, it would be nice to have a friend my own age.

When I opened the door to the cabin I expected to be able to run straight for the bed and collapse in it, thus commencing my self-pitying session. My first clue that that wasn't going to happen should have been the lack of guards outside, but I didn't notice the first clue. The second one was easier to spot. And that was the fact that there were four grown men standing in the living space of my cabin. I had forgotten that I was supposed to meet with the chief today.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, glaring at the chief.

"Marina!" he exclaimed turning to face me as his (and my) guards did the same. He was smiling at me and I didn't know why. "There you are."

I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms defensively. "Here I am," I responded, sounding bored.

The chief walked towards me and then did the something I wouldn't have expected in a million years—he embraced me. It was like I was his long-lost relative or something. I couldn't help but stiffen at his touch. If he noticed this he didn't show it.

"Marina," he said again, "I'm so glad you're here."

"You didn't exactly give me a choice in that matter," I shot back.

The chief just smiled wider, but I could see the edge of his mouth twitching. "Yes, well, I'm afraid it was a necessary precaution."

I laughed. "Did your wife tell you that?"

The smile fell from the chief's face. "That's enough," he said firmly, "Come. You are to meet with the elders of the tribe."

I glued my feet to the floor. "I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me where my father is."

"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment."

"Why not?" I demanded, "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," the chief said, "but until we can be sure that you will not act out against us, we have decided to keep his location secret from you."

I just glared at him more.

"So, if you would like to see your father," the chief started, "you will be compliant and do as we ask. Now, let's go."

I obliged, following the chief back out the door—so much for putting something other than Fallon's robe on. We—meaning me, the chief, and four guards—headed back for the center square. When we approached Fawn and her friends again, I was glad that my built up tears had evaporated. Brown eyes met another, colder, pair of brown eyes. Fawn narrowed her eyes, smirking at me, as I passed. What did she have against me? I just didn't get it.

I snapped my head forward—forcing us to break eye contact—and tried to focus on what awaited me at our destination. I tried, but it wasn't very easy. With every step I took I felt a new pair of eyes fall on me. How many people had witnessed my transformations? How many people now knew what I was? How many people knew about the prophecy? I glanced around at the tribe members, watching them stare at me, whisper to each other and their children point. I looked down at my feet—bare and close to frozen—wishing I could hear the thoughts of those around me. Not only was I an outsider, but I was also an anomaly. If there was one thing these people knew, it was that.

When I looked up again, my eyes found another pair of brown. Fallon's were of course the same shade as her twin's but they somehow seemed softer, more welcoming. Despite Fallon's crossed arms and the scowl situated across her face, I knew she wasn't as mean as she liked everyone to think she was. Again I wondered what she meant by not being able to use her robe. I tried to make out who got to wear robes and who didn't, but there didn't seem to be any distinguishing features amongst those who wore them. All the guards wore robes, but so did some parents escorting their children to school and even some children and teens—the youngest of them looking to be about seven. I just couldn't figure it out. I made a mental note to ask Taz about it later.

When the chief and I (and our entourage) reached the building in the East corner that Taz had pointed out to me earlier as the one where the council resided, one of the guards held the door open for us. The chief gestured for me to follow him inside. The lighting inside was soft and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the change. When they did I realized I was standing in a large hall—a hall that was empty except for the people that stood in it. I counted eight people—men and women—each wearing a robe. They stood in a semi-circle in the middle of the room but left a single spot open in the center of the curved line. I easily picked out Yvette in the semi-circle, standing to the left of the open space. The chief stepped forward and filled the hole while the guards we'd come with positioned themselves behind me, closing the circle and blocking my exit. If they hoped to trap me they were doing a good job.

"_This _is the girl? The double shapeshifter?" a man standing to my right asked. The skepticism in his voice was very clear.

I glared at the man. Why was everyone reacting that way? What had they expected?

"Yes," Yvette answered, her tone stiff, "I was not impressed either, but I have seen her shift into both forms. Despite her weak appearance and stubborn attitude, she is the 'one of many forms'."

I turned my glare on Yvette. _Weak appearance?_ For a seventeen year old girl, I'd always thought myself to be pretty tough. If she wanted me to prove just how strong I was I would happily put my fist through her face.

The man who had questioned my identity, studied me for a moment. "She clearly requires physical training in addition to the shifting training."

Shifting training? I knew how to shift—it was practically second nature to me by now. And what was this talk of physical training? Was running at least three miles every day not enough? My frown deepened. I already did not like these "elders".

"And you said that she's Mark Keller's daughter?" a woman to my left asked.

"I agree and yes, she is Mark Keller's second child," Yvette answered.

"Where is my dad?" I demanded, interrupting their conversation about me, "I want to see him."

Intrigued murmurs escaped the lips of the elders surrounding the chief and his wife.

"We told you," Yvette answered, taking control, "That is not possible at the moment." The other elders hushed at the sound of her voice.

"Marina," the chief said, "there is a reason we have asked you here."

"You mean it wasn't just to decide how to control my life?" I asked sarcastically. The murmurs started up again. _Good, _I thought, _let them know I wasn't going to make this easy for them_.

I noticed Yvette's jaw clench, but the chief held his composure. "No," he answered calmly, "What I am about to tell you is something that you must promise to keep secret. You cannot tell…or show anyone."

"Sure." I shrugged. _Like I was really going to keep that promise_.

"You may be able to shift into two animals, but the prophecy describes 'one of _many_ forms'," he emphasized.

I felt my hopes lift. Were they about to tell me that I wasn't the one in the prophecy?

"We have no doubt that you are the one in the prophecy."

_Damn it._

"And, therefore, we believe that you have many forms."

I frowned. "What are you saying?"

"We believe that the wolf and the dolphin are not your only forms," the chief said.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that you can shift into _any_ animal."

**Again, please vote in the poll on my author page if you haven't already—I really want to know your opinion! Also, I am still accepting character submissions if anyone has any more ideas. Lastly, just a quick note to **_CelticH2O_**: sorry I haven't included your character in the story yet. I had to reorganize some ideas and wasn't able to write Drew into this chapter, but I promise that you will definitely see her in the next one! :)**


	6. Back to Basics

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! Also thank you to anyone who has voted in my poll—you guys are clearly biased haha—and if you haven't voted yet, please do! Anyway, this chapter is extra long because a lot of stuff happens…hope you think it's good stuff ;)**

I was silent as I walked back to my cabin—well, as I was _escorted_ back to my cabin. The elders insisted that the guards who had accompanied me to the council building take me back home. They really didn't trust me. Not that I blamed them—they definitely shouldn't trust me. As I walked, people stared again. I wondered how long it would take for them to get used to my presence. I wondered how long it would take me to get used to their presence.

I was having a hard time wrapping my head around what the chief told me. Turn into _any _animal? That wasn't possible. It had never been possible. Even thousands of years ago when some shapeshifters could turn into more than one animal, it was only one other animal, not countless more. Two. That was it. And that was me. I could turn into a wolf and a dolphin. Nothing more. Okay, so maybe the prophecy said "many forms", and yes, technically the word many implies more than two, but turning into a dolphin when I was ten had been some strange fluke. I hadn't turned into anything other than my dolphin and wolf since, and my second change was seven years ago. I would've thought that if I was capable of turning into any animal then at least one of those other animals would have appeared over the past few years, but no. The elders had to be wrong. It was that simple. They were wrong to have me brought to the tribe and they were wrong about me being able to turn into any animal.

I tried again to get them to tell me where they were keeping my father but they remained silent. Not that I really expected them to tell me, but it never hurt to try. Once I was allowed to explore on my own I would find my father. They couldn't treat me like a prisoner forever.

"Let go of me!" I heard a female voice shout. Instinctively, I turned in the direction of the sound. Over near the area that I was pretty sure held the entrance to the tribe—or was at least where I had come in the night before—was a girl who looked to be about my age. She had dark brown hair and similarly dark eyes. Despite the distance between us, I could tell that she had tons of scratches and scars all over her body. They looked bad from where I stood—I couldn't imagine what they looked like up close. Oh, and one other thing—she was completely naked. It didn't take long for me to figure out she was a shapeshifter. Why else would someone choose to be note in this freezing cold weather? The stranger thing was, was that she didn't seem to care about the cold. In fact, she didn't seem to notice it at all—she was more concerned about the two guards attempting to restrain her.

"Get off!" she shouted again trying to throw the guards' arms away from her, "You can't do this to me!"

"Actually," came a voice that I immediately recognized, "we can."

I turned to see Yvette marching towards the girl, with two more guards at her side. I didn't know what was going on, but if Yvette was involved, no matter what it was, I was on the girl's side.

Yvette's evil smile crept onto her thin face as she approached the girl. "Ah, Drew Carter. I was wondering when we'd be seeing you."

"You should consider it an honor," Drew spat.

Yvette stared at the sneering girl. "Oh, trust me, I do," she said, sticking her nose up even further in the air than it already was, "to prove it I'll give you the most secure accommodations we have."

"I'm not a member of this tribe," Drew said, "You can't keep me here."

"But, you see, we can. You trespassed on our land, "Yvette said, still smiling.

"No, I didn't! Your goons pulled me onto this land."

"Well, either way, you're here now. Take her away," Yvette said, waving her arm. I looked around at the rest of the people who had been watching the scene. They must realize that what Yvette was doing was wrong-they must want to say something. Someone must want to protest, but no. When I looked at all the people in the square they were already back to doing their everyday tasks, eyes adverted. This wasn't right-how could they all ignore what Yvette was doing to this girl? I knew I couldn't.

"Yvette! Stop!" I called across the square, running over to where two guards were still holding Drew before my own guards could reach out and stop me.

Yvette's eyes narrowed when she spotted me in the crowd. "Marina," she said, "I'd have thought you would have learned your place by now."

I glanced at Drew, who looked at me suspiciously, before returning my gaze to Yvette. "You can't keep her here. This isn't right. She's not your prisoner!"

"Excuse me," Drew interrupted, glaring at me, "But I don't need some scrawny tribal rebel fighting my battles."

"I was just trying to help you," I said, frowning, "I'm sorry but it sounded like you don't want to be here."

"I don't, but that doesn't mean I need your _help._" The way she said the word "help" made it sound like it was a dirty word. "I am perfectly capable of fighting my own battles, so back off."

I just stared at her. I was stunned. I would have thought she'd graciously accept my help. Instead, I felt like I'd just been slapped in the face.

"Enough," Yvette said, sounding bored, "Take her away."

I watched as the guards led Drew across the square towards the Eastern corner. Fawn, Fallon, and now Drew all hated me. What was I doing wrong? I just didn't get it.

"Marina," Yvette said, addressing me again, "I warned you once before, do not test me. Return her to her cabin."

I turned to see my guards had reappeared. Yvette shot me one last smirk before marching off.

The next few days were filled with early rises, ten mile runs, hundreds of crunches and push-ups, and peeking frustration. The morning after the chief told me what it meant to have "many forms", I was assigned a trainer to teach me how to shift into those forms and to apparently build up my lacking strength. It was absolute hell.

I had to get up each morning at five to be ready for my first ten mile run (in my human form) of the day at six—the second was at four o'clock in the afternoon. Then at eight I had to do fifty laps in the tribe's indoor (thank god) pool and other exercises in my dolphin form. Once I was finished there I had to shift into my wolf form and climb the extremely difficult rock formation in the training facility and work on keeping up my speed during sprints. I had to do a hundred crunches and push-ups before I was allowed to break for lunch.

The worst part was I actually preferred my morning routine to the afternoon one. My afternoons were spent learning new shifting techniques, relearning everything my dad had taught me when I first shifted, and desperately trying to force my body into a different form. I'd always thought I was a shapeshifting prodigy, but it seemed that no matter what I did I couldn't shift into another animal. All my attempts ended in me shifting into my wolf or dolphin form, or absolutely nothing happening. After five days with no results, I think even my trainer was beginning to doubt my ability to turn into any animal.

On my sixth afternoon, Taz paid me a visit. The only good thing about all my training was that I got to do it in privacy. All the other kids and teens enrolled in a training program had to work in groups. I suppose the chief thought my regiment was too unique for me to be placed in a group setting—either that or he was afraid I would away with slacking off if I was in a group. No matter the reason, I was very happy that I didn't have to train in front of Fawn or Fallon. I wouldn't have been able to stand the humiliation of not shifting into another animal for an hour if they'd been watching, let alone five days.

But Taz was a different story. He was the only person in the tribe who actually realized I was a person, not some goddess or punching bag. I was surprised to see him—he had been avoiding me the last couple days because I had been desperately trying to get him to tell me where they were keeping my dad. Of course he refused to tell me, but I could also tell that he felt bad about keeping the information from me—if there was one person who would tell me where my dad was, it would be Taz. However, after I asked him five times, I realized I saw less and less of him. I guess he thought the only solution to keep from lying or disappointing me was to stay away from me. Even though I wanted nothing more than to see my dad again, I had missed seeing Taz's friendly face the past two days—maybe I could leave the subject of my dad to the side for today—just for today though.

He didn't say anything when he came in—he just stood off to the side and watched me train. Despite his presence, I didn't feel pressured to succeed. Instead, I simply wanted to show him that I was strong enough to do this—which is a completely different kind of motivation. Even with that extra desire to get it right, I couldn't get myself to shift into anything other than my wolf and dolphin.

"Come on, Marina!" My trainer—whose name was too long and complicated for me to remember—yelled, "Concentrate!"

I wanted to yell back that I was concentrating. I was concentrating so hard that I was afraid I might spontaneously combust. The animal I was attempting today was a dog. Its close relation to the wolf was supposed to make my transformation easier, but so far, nothing about it was easy. I was having a hard time focusing on what kind of dog—which probably wasn't improving my chances. Still, I had to try. An image of a German Shepherd formed in my head and I attempted to make my body match that image. I felt my body began to change, my legs shortening and my long hair receding. Fallon's robe fell away from my body—now in an animal shape—what animal I didn't know, but I desperately hoped it was a dog. I looked up at my trainer for confirmation.

He shook his head. "Wolf," he said simply.

I frowned and shifted back into human form, pulling Fallon's robe back around me.

"Let's take a five minute break," my trainer said, also frowning.

I nodded and walked over to where Taz was standing. "I think we have to face the facts," I said, "I'm a double shapeshifter. Two animals. That's it."

Taz studied me. "You just need to keep trying," he said.

"I am trying," I retorted, "What do you think I've been doing for the past five days?"

He raised his eyebrows at me. "You're not very patient are you?"

I smiled. "It's not exactly my strong-suit."

"Marina," my trainer called, "Come on, let's have another go."

I turned to go but Taz caught my arm. "Did your family ever own a dog?" he asked.

"A dog? Really? With two cats in the house?"

He laughed. "True," he said, "Did you ever know anyone who had a dog?"

"One of my friends in elementary school had one…" I told him, my voice trailing off. Where was he going with this?

"Okay, good," Taz said, "the next time you try to shift into a dog, think about that dog. Try to remember not only what it looked like but how it acted too."

I thought about it. Everything my trainer had me thinking about wasn't real—he told me to imagine a dog in my mind, but never one I had actually seen or met before. Taz's idea might actually help.

"I'll try it," I said.

Taz smiled at me as I ran back over to my trainer.

"Ready to try again?" my trained asked.

I nodded.

"Okay, now remember, you need to picture a dog in your mind. Make your body take the dog's form," my trainer said for what was probably the twentieth time that day.

I did as he instructed, only this time, I pictured my old friend, Hailey's chocolate lab. I remembered him jumping on me every time I walked through the door. Focusing on Hailey's old dog, I shifted.

Once again I had four paws on the ground, but I didn't feel any different from when I was in my wolf form. I looked up at my trainer. Had I finally done it?

He didn't automatically answer me—that had to mean something. He stared at me. The longer he stared the deeper his eyebrows furrowed. I glanced over at Taz, who had picked himself up off the wall and took a couple steps towards me—as if he needed to get a closer look. Neither of them had ever taken this must interest in my transformations, and yet, it wasn't exactly how I expected to them react if I succeeded. Both my trainer and Taz seemed…intrigued. I wanted to ask them what had happened—what I did—how I looked. But I couldn't do that without shifting back into human form and losing my current form.

Taz walked over to my trainer and stood beside him, both of them continuing to stare at me. "It's something," Taz said, raising his eyebrows.

"I suppose," my trainer said reluctantly, "but she's still a wolf."

_Damn_. So I hadn't turned into a dog. So what had I done then? Why were they still interested?

"You're still a wolf, Marina," Taz said, "but it's not your normal wolf."

Not my normal wolf? What did that mean?

As if reading my mind, Taz continued, "Your coat isn't the usual mix of gray and white. It looks like more of a blend of brown and tan."

Brown and tan? I had never changed the color of my coat before—I didn't even think I could, even after the chief told me I could turn into any animal.

My trainer reached for the camera that sat on a nearby table and snapped a photo of me for the tribe's records. Up until then, nothing else I had done warranted a photo. "You can shift back now," he told me.

I did as he instructed. "I really turned into a brown wolf?" I asked Taz excitedly.

"Yeah," he said, laughing at me slightly.

"Ohmigod, that's awesome. I didn't think I could actually do this, but—I don't know—maybe I can. I wonder if I can change the color of my coat again. Or, wait! What if I can change the color of my skin in my dolphin form? That would be so cool," I gushed. I couldn't help but babble. I was just so excited. The reality was starting to sink in—_any animal_—it was really possible.

"Just out of curiosity," Taz started, "What dog were you picturing when you shifted?"

"A chocolate lab, why?"

Taz smiled. "That's why your coat turned brown. You may not have been able to turn into a chocolate lab but you mimicked its coat color. That's definitely a start."

I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Okay, Marina," my trainer said, "Let's go a few more rounds and then we'll call it a day."

"Let's do this," I said, my confidence completely restored.

But by the end of the day I still hadn't managed to shift into a dog. All I managed to do was change my gray fur to brown once more. When I was released at six after my second ten mile run, my frustration had returned. I seriously thought I had finally had it that time, but no. So I could change the color of my coat? What good was that? As far as Taz was concerned though, it was great progress. I, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.

Consistent with my recent daily routine, I wanted nothing more than to collapse on my bed—maybe with a box of Wheat Thins—and relax. I greeted the guards as I walked up the steps to my cabin. Almost a week after I had been brought to the tribe, I was still escorted to the Southern corner, where my training took place each day, but thankfully, my trainer now trusted me enough to let me walk back on my own. Without two guards constantly flaking my sides, less people stared at me, and _that_ was a very nice thing. I sighed as I closed the cabin door behind me—my bed was calling.

I nearly shrieked, but managed to slap a hand over my mouth before anything came out, when I walked into my bedroom. Fallon was leaning against the wall beside my dresser, examining one of my necklaces. Her nose ring sparkling in light of the setting sun that streaked in through the window.

"Good, you're home," she said, not even looking up at me.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" I asked, completely stunned. The only thing Fallon had done since I ran into her my first day in the tribe was glare at me. I watched as she placed my necklace back on the dresser. "If this is about the robe, I swear I was going to give it back. My trainer, he just said that I should keep it until I get one of my own."

Fallon looked at me like I had two heads. "No, this isn't about the robe. I told you, I won't use it," she said.

I still didn't know what she meant by that. Over the last few days I had discovered that the robes were used to make shifting back and forth between one's human and animal form easier, but if Fallon didn't use a robe did that mean she tried not to shift? Or did it mean she preferred to shift without a robe? I decided that those were questions to be answered on another day. "Then why are you here?"

"I heard you were looking for your father," Fallon said, looking up at me, "I know where he is."


	7. Underneath

**So, I realize it has been over a month since I updated and for that I sincerely apologize. Life just got crazy. To make it up to you, I am giving you an extra long chapter and, as soon as I post this one, I am going to start on the next one. Anyway, hope you enjoy Marina and Fallon as ninjas of the night haha :)**

"You do?" I asked, inadvertently stepping towards her, "Where?"

"I can't tell you, you'd never find it on your own. Besides, you'd probably get caught," she said, "But I can take you to him."

"Really?"

"No, I'm messing with you." Fallon rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I snuck into your room?"

"But why would you help me? You hate me."

Fallon sighed impatiently. "I don't _hate_ you."

I was definitely surprised by that comment. All evidence definitely pointed to her hating me. "But still, you don't even know me. It can't be easy for you to do this."

Fallon shrugged. "I won't be doing it for you. I'd be doing it for me." A sneaky smile that vaguely reminded me of Brad crept onto her face. "I live for trouble."

I admit it, I was skeptical. I still couldn't believe that Fallon would want to take me to my dad, though she did make a good point about sneaking into my bedroom. What was the worst that could happen? Even if she was playing me, then I would get probably just get caught someplace I wasn't allowed to be and be given more guards to watch over me. Of course I didn't want more guards, but to pass up a chance of getting to see my dad? No way.

"So are you in?" Fallon asked as she walked over to the window and peeked out, "Cause, you know, I'm technically not allowed to be here either."

I raised my eyebrows. Hmm, she wasn't kidding about living for trouble. "Yeah, I'm in."

She pulled open the window and with one leg hanging out, swiveled her head to look at me. "Great, we'll go tomorrow night then. Meet me at…" she paused, staring at me for a moment, "On second thought, I'll come get you. Don't need you getting caught sneaking out of your cabin. Just be ready to go at nine, okay?"

I nodded eagerly.

Fallon hopped off the window ledge and onto the ground below. "Be ready means dress and act like a spy," she whispered, "So, _please_, no squeaky shoes. Those are the worst."

"Umm, okay," I said, wondering what I had gotten myself into.

"Good, see you tomorrow."

I watched as Fallon disappeared around the back of the cabin without making a sound. Act like a spy? Wow, she wasn't kidding. I had no problem moving silently in my wolf form, but on two legs? I could do it, but definitely not as well as Fallon could. It didn't matter though because I was going to do whatever it took to see my dad.

I couldn't concentrate at all during training the next day. All I could think about was finally seeing my dad after three long months. Come four o'clock I was so jittery with excitement that I ran my ten mile loop faster than any other day, even if I still had to wait more than three hours until Fallon showed up at my window. The time of my run was the only thing my trainer was impressed with. Due to my total lack of concentration I hardly succeeded during training. In fact, I didn't succeed at all—I only managed to change the color of my coat once. And had my mind been in the right place I know I could have changed color, and maybe even shape finally, many times, instead of the one time.

I had no idea how I managed to survive the three hours between my run and when Fallon discretely knocked on my window. All I knew was that those three hours were torture.

As quietly as I could, I pulled open my bedroom window. "Hey," I said to Fallon, then gestured to my all black outfit, "Will this work?"

She stuck her head through the gap to get a better look at my whole ensemble—including the softest-soled shoes I could find. "Yeah, I suppose that'll do." She pulled her head back outside and gestured for me to follow her.

"So, tell me, why don't we just shift and sneak over there? Cause I don't know about you, but I can be a lot quieter if I'm on four legs," I whispered as I swung my leg over the ledge and looked down to see how far the drop would be—not too bad.

Fallon narrowed her eyes at me. "Do _you_ know where we're going?"

"No," I said hesitantly.

"Do _you_ know what kind of security they have at night?"

"No."

"Can _your_ fluffy silver wolf coat blend in with the shadows?"

"Umm, no?" But I probably could if I had the whole changing color thing down. I ducked my head under the window and hopped down to the ground below.

"Right, so how about for now _you_ just trust me?" Fallon said, "Come on, this way."

I followed her down around the corner to the small alley behind the row of cabins on my street. She led me down towards the main square but never entered it. Silently, we walked around the back of every building, being careful not to be seen by any guards doing their rounds. But apparently, Fallon knew all about who made what round when. She stopped me at the back of one building—which I assumed was the grocery store—and I watched as a guard walked around the corner of the next building over.

Fallon led me all the way around the main square to the East corner where the council building was and, what I now knew was the chief's (and Taz's) house. I noticed that there were significantly fewer guards in the East corner than the other areas of the tribe—perhaps the chief believed if someone were to sneak out it certainly wouldn't be to come to the East corner where they would have to face his wrath if caught.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized Fallon was leading me directly to the chief's house. "Hold up," I said, catching her by the arm, "we're not going in there, are we?"

Fallon looked around, exasperated. "Whatever happened to you trusting me?" she whispered harshly.

I gestured to the chief's house—which still had a light still on in two of the windows—and shot Fallon a look.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. No, we're not going in there," she said, pointing to the rather large house—well, large considering the size of the rest of the cabins. "Actually," she pointed to a smaller and much less noticeable structure behind the house, "we're going in there."

I stared at the building in front of me—it didn't even look like a prison. In fact, it looked more like a small house. But it didn't matter what it looked like because my dad was inside.

Suddenly, I was extremely nervous. How was my dad going to react at seeing me? I wasn't supposed to be in the tribe. The entire reason my dad was being kept here was so that I could remain at home. What was he going to say when he discovered his sacrifice hadn't mattered—that I was still brought here? Sure, it wasn't exactly my fault—it wasn't like I could help being kidnapped—but, had I stayed at home instead of visiting Bella in Australia, or even if I had fought Taz more at the airport (because I now realized that there was no way he would have shot anyone), then maybe I wouldn't be a prisoner myself. But I hadn't. I had gone to Australia. I had let Taz take me. And, frankly, I didn't know how my dad was going to react. I would like to think that he'd be happy to see me, but that could just be wishful thinking.

"What is this place?" I whispered to Fallon.

"It's like a guest house," she answered, "Chiefs from other tribes have stayed here in the past when they've come to visit."

"Why would other chiefs come here? Isn't each tribe independent of one another?"

"Yes, but, because we are the largest tribe in the country, other chiefs like to come to see how we're run and organized." She laughed harshly. "Like there's really anything to see. No matter what they say, everyone knows we live in a dictatorship."

"What about Taz?" I asked.

"What about him?"

"Well, isn't he supposed to take over as chief in two years?"

Fallon laughed again. "The only way that'll happen is if Taz finally grows a pair," she paused, smiling to herself, "or if he steals them from his mother."

I didn't respond. I still thought Taz would make a good leader.

"This way," Fallon whispered as she turned the knob of a door on the side of the guest house.

"It's not locked?" I asked incredulously. I found it hard to believe the chief would leave the door leading to his prisoner unlocked. Maybe Fallon _was_ playing a trick on me.

"You're forgetting: only a handful of people know your father is being kept here," Fallon said, "And besides, the chief is arrogant enough to think that no one would dare go against him."

Together we slipped inside and I shut the door behind me. It was darker without the moonlight but it didn't take long for my eyes to adjust to the new setting. The inside looked like any regular, old living room-kitchen combination: table, chairs, couch, even a refrigerator and stove. This was turning out to be nothing like the prison I'd been expecting. But then again, Fallon had said the place was sometimes used as a guest house. Part of me wondered if I'd be staying here had my father not been a prisoner.

"How is it that you are one of the people who knows where my father is?" I asked Fallon suspiciously.

Keeping her back to me as we walked across the room to a door beside the refrigerator, she responded, "You'd be surprised what you can learn when you're a social outcast. People will say all kinds of things when they don't notice you standing there."

A social outcast? Why did she consider herself a social outcast? Frankly, a lot of things Fallon said didn't make sense to me, but I kept my questions to myself. I would have time to ask her them later. Right now, I had to focus on my dad.

Fallon stopped just outside the white door. "You stay here," she whispered, "In fact, go hide in the pantry over there."

"Why? What are you going to do?"

She smiled mischievously. "I'm going to take care of the guards of course."

"Guards? How?"

Fallon rolled her eyes. I got the distinct sense that she felt like she was talking to a child. "I'm going to let them see me so they'll come after me and I can lead them away from the house. That way you can sneak downstairs and talk to your father, is that okay with you?"

"But if they see you, you'll get in trouble," I pointed out.

"So?" Fallon shrugged. "Like I told you, I live for trouble." She smiled at me again before opening the door and disappearing behind it.

A few seconds later, I heard shouts from inside. The guards must have spotted Fallon. The pounding of Fallon's footsteps on a staircase woke me from my thoughts, making me realize I was still in plain view of anyone who came through the door. _Crap_.

I didn't have enough time to rush over to the pantry and get the sliding door shut before the guards made it up those stairs. I quickly glanced around the kitchen, hoping to find a place to hide. The refrigerator was deep enough that if I sat atop the counter on the other side of it and tucked my knees into my chest the guards that would barrel into the room in a matter of seconds wouldn't see me—especially if Fallon led them straight out of the house. It wasn't the best idea, in fact it was probably the worst idea, but I didn't have time for anything better.

I scrambled on top of the counter and hugged my knees to my chest, holding absolutely still. I hoped my black clothing would work to make me blend into the shadows of the room.

No sooner was I safely positioned on the other side of the fridge that the door swung open once more, slamming against the wall, and Fallon rushed out closely followed by two fairly tall, fairly muscular men in robes.

"Stop!" one of them shouted to Fallon, but Fallon just smirked as she opened the door to the outside and disappeared once more.

"Come on!" the other guard said, "We can't let her get away. The chief doesn't want anyone knowing where Keller's being kept."

_Dad_. He was here. A breath that sounded like the beatings of a thousand moth wings escaped my mouth. Frantic, I clamped a hand over it, desperately hoping that the guards hadn't heard me, that the sound hadn't nearly been as vociferous as I thought.

The guards didn't notice. They rushed across the room and out the door in pursuit of Fallon. I didn't move for another couple seconds, making sure they were gone. Then I carefully slid down off of the counter and tiptoed around to the other side of the refrigerator to where the door with the staircase behind it was. The door was wide open and there was a small ceiling light at the bottom of the stairs. I slowly made my way down, again, not knowing what to expect.

At the bottom of the stairs I rounded the corner to find a small card table and two chairs set up outside a larger, more compact looking door. In the center of the door was a rectangular cutout, a space that was certainly smaller than a normal sheet of paper but big enough to be able to push a plate of food through.

"Dad?" I whispered in the confined space. There was shuffling from behind the holed door. I took a step towards it. Peering through the rectangular opening, I whispered again, "Dad?"

The man sitting on the cot behind the door turned to face me. "Marina?" he asked tentatively, as if he thought his ears were deceiving him. "Marina," he said again, seeing my face through the hole and rising off the small bed.

"Dad," I said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, his eyes full of concern but not for him, for me, "What are you doing here?"

"The chief had me brought here," I told him.

"No," he said, anger rising in his voice, "We had a deal: I would come here and you would get to stay home."

"It's my fault," I said, not meeting his gaze, "I didn't stay home. I went to visit Bella in Australia without telling them."

My dad frowned. "This is not your fault, Marina," he said adamantly, "They should have never taken you away from home. They can't keep you here."

"They say they're doing it to protect me," relaying what Stephen told me during my ride to the tribe, "and when I think about it that way, they do kind of have a point—with all the hunters and stuff at home."

He shook his head firmly. "No, that is not an excuse. The entire reason Geoff and Rebekka stayed in California was to help protect you from the hunters. Besides, I'm sure your mother would have implemented some new rules for you guys after what happened last fall."

I was silent. I didn't tell him that she didn't have to since there was never a moment where I wasn't with Geoff, Rebekka, Henry, or Tanner.

"Do you know why the chief really brought you here?" my dad asked.

I looked down at my feet. "It—it has something to do with the prophecy," I told him, my voice smaller than the opening between us.

"They told you about the prophecy?" he asked, holding a hand to his forehead, "Oh, Marina, I'm so sorry."

"Actually," I started slowly, "I didn't find out about the prophecy from the tribe."

Our gazes met once more. From the furrowed eyebrows, I could tell my dad was confused.

"I, kind of, found out from you," I said softly, then quickly jumped into the story of how I'd overheard him talking with Rebekka that first day and then how I did my own research until Valerie was able to give me a copy of the prophecy shortly after I left the hospital. "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about it. I was afraid you'd want to pick up and move, hide me away."

He sighed. "And you wouldn't have been wrong."

"But Dad," I said carefully, "I'm starting to think I really am the one mentioned in the prophecy."

"Why would you think that?"

"You know why," I whispered, "Because I can turn into two animals."

"That doesn't mean anything," my dad said quickly, as if trying to convince himself that it couldn't possibly be true.

"You don't believe that," I told him, "I _know_ you don't."

He didn't say anything.

"You've known about the prophecy for awhile, and I think you knew I was the one the moment I turned into a dolphin that day at the beach."

The sad smile he gave her brought her close to tears. "I just want you to be safe."

"I know," I said, returning the smile, "But, if I am the shapeshifter in the prophecy then I can't run from this."

He took my hand through the opening. "When did my baby girl get so grown up?"

I didn't answer him—I didn't really have an answer for him. "There's one more thing," I said finally, "The chief and the council, they think that I can turn into more than two animals."

My dad nodded. "When it comes to the prophecy, that has always been the belief of the tribe."

I looked down. "I'm starting to think they're right."

My dad seemed surprised by that. "Have you shifted into an animal other than a wolf or a dolphin?"

"No…not yet," I said, "But I think I can." I told him of how I had managed to change the color of my coat.

He seemed to be contemplating what I'd said. "I hate to say it, honey, but I think I agree with you." He sighed, as if his statement had taken so much out of him.

I decided not tell him how much the prospect of turning into any animal excited me now.

"You have to delay them," he said after a moment.

"What do you mean?"

There were shouts from upstairs that caused us both to freeze. I began to panic. How much time had passed? Had Fallon gotten caught? What if the guards were back already?

"Marina!"

The sound of my dad's urgent whisper broke my trance.

"Listen, even if you think you'll be able to shift into a different animal, _don't_. Take as much time in this training as possible," he said quickly.

"Why?"

"Because it'll give you more time to figure out a way to escape."

My eyes widened. Did he really think that was possible? Stephen had told to not bother running when I first arrived in the tribe, claiming that there wasn't any other civilization in the area for miles and that I would die of starvation before I found anything. Had he been lying? I thought about how my dad had been able to do it. That proved it was at least possible.

He explained further, talking quickly as the voices above us got louder. "Sebastian has always craved power. He even convinced his father to let him take over the tribe before the allocated age. That's how he views you: as another way to solidify his power."

"But isn't Yvette the one who is the real threat?"

"Yvette is a snake, yes," my dad spat bitterly, "but it's Sebastian you really need to watch out for. It may seem like he's all talk, but there's a lot more bite behind his bark than you think. The fact that he's a dragon isn't the only reason people fear him. The reason he brought you here against your will was to show everyone that no one can defy him."

"But he's already a dragon and the chief of the tribe. Who would even consider going against him?"

"A lot of people," he said, "Sebastian's new rules have aroused resentment in many people of the tribe, but for now their fear of him is greater than their discontent. The chief knows that it could take only one person to start a revolt, and he's afraid that person will be you."

"Me? Why me?"

"If you succeed if changing into any animal, you'll be infinite times more powerful than the chief. He knows that and that's why he wants you on his side. _He fears you_."

I considered that idea. It made sense. The chief was always careful to be pleasant around me. Although I never really liked him, he was nicer to me than Yvette and Stephen. "So how do we get out of here?" I asked.

"Not we," he said, "Just you."

"But I can't leave you here!"

"You can and you will," my dad said, "Marina, you are my priority. As long as you get out of here safely I will be happy."

"No. No," I repeated, shaking my head vigorously, "You have to come with me. How am I going to get out of here without you?"

"It'll be okay, just—"

His voice was cut off by a louder and much clearer voice from upstairs.

"You don't scare me you worthless dogs! I know what I saw down there!" I heard Fallon scream at the top of her lungs. She was being a lot louder than normal, and I took it as my warning to get out of there.

"Go! You can't be caught down here," my dad told me.

I listened to him, turning away but not before whispering, "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, honey," he responded.

I tiptoed back up the stairs and peeked out at the first floor. The door Fallon and I had come in, across the room, was wide open and outside stood Fallon with the two guards. She was waving her hands and no doubt complaining about something to them—definitely being as dramatic as possible.

I glanced around the room for a different way out. Crouching low, I crawled over to a window on the opposite side of the house from where Fallon and the two guards stood, turning the lock and silently sliding it open. I mentally sent Fallon all my gratitude as I slipped myself through the window and closed it again.


	8. The Marina Menagerie

**Hi everyone! Sorry about the later update. This chapter took me longer than I expected, that, and of course life just got in the way. I hope you can forgive me! Anywho, hope you like this chapter! Oh, and to the guest who asked about Jet: don't worry, he'll be back…**_**very**_** soon ;)**

If someone were to ask me how I got back to my cabin last night, I wouldn't have been able to answer them. Of course, there wasn't anyone to ask me that question since the only person who knew I had even snuck out was Fallon. I seriously couldn't understand how I managed to find my way back in the dark without Fallon to guide me. It definitely took me longer than it did to get over to the East corner in the first place, but that was only because I was extra careful around every corner for fear of running into any guards and I went too far past the main square, ending up in the North corner before realizing I had to backtrack. What amazed me even more was that I had managed to get back to my cabin without being caught by any guards. Either the two guards by the guest house had called in reinforcements to catch Fallon or I was just lucky, because I didn't run into one guard.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I kept going over the conversation I'd had with my dad in my head. I had to escape—no, _we_ had to escape. I didn't care what he said. We were both going to get out of here. The problem was I had no idea how. We'd been cut off before he could tell me how he'd done it the first time and all the ideas I came up with while lying awake in bed would certainly get me caught.

I wanted to visit my dad again but it became clear the next morning that that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. For breaking curfew, Fallon had been given compost duty for a week—a job that was apparently worse than collecting trash on the back of a garbage truck—and restricted access across town. I wasn't exactly sure what the second punishment meant, but I had a feeling that Fallon would find a way around it.

I felt bad that she had been punished because of me, but when I passed by her in the town square on my way to training the next morning, our eyes met for a second and she winked at me. We both quickly looked away after that and I hurried towards the South corner, smiling to myself. Had I really found a friend in Fallon, of all people? I had, and, for the first time since arriving at the tribe, I was happy.

During training, I did as my dad asked, and never really tried to shift into another animal. But, just so my trainer didn't get angry, I did change the color of my coat a few times. I could tell he was frustrated, and, truthfully, so was I. Even though I wasn't supposed to be trying, I still wanted to prove that I _could_ shift into any animal—if not to the chief and the council, but to myself.

I hoped to see Fallon that night after I got home from training, but she didn't show up at my window. I wanted to tell her what my dad had said about escaping. After exhausting every possibility I could think of for escape, I realized that I couldn't do it alone, and Fallon was definitely the best person to ask—after last night, I could tell she knew the ins and outs of the tribe better than maybe even the chief himself. That, and the fact that she was the only person I trusted at the moment convinced me to confide in her.

It wasn't until four days after I talked to my dad that I got to talk to Fallon again. She appeared late one night, knocking lightly at my window, like a secret lover. Somehow, when I imagined someone sneaking into my bedroom in the middle of the night, I imagined it would be a guy, not some quick-quipped rebel girl.

"Hey," I whispered as I pulled open my window to let her inside. It had started snowing again—the leftovers from the last snow storm barely had time to melt. Briefly, I wondered if the tribe had snow days and if there was any chance my training, or at least my early morning run, would be cancelled. Living towards the more Southern end of California, I'd never had a snow day, and the possibility of one excited me. But, at the same time, having seen how normally the tribe functions with half a foot of compact snow on the ground, I didn't want to get my hopes up.

The constant snow also made me wonder where the tribe was located…again. It was information I needed if I was going to escape—I only had a hundred dollars cash (and twenty Australian dollars) in my wallet, and, if I was on the other side of the country, I didn't think that would last me the trip home. The presence of snow would have given me a better clue about my whereabouts had it not been the beginning of February and half the country was expected to be experiencing winter.

"I had no idea they cared so much," Fallon said in a mocking and slightly annoyed tone.

I had no idea what she was talking about or who they were. But, thankfully, I didn't have to ask—Fallon just kept talking.

"They usually just ignore me—pretend not to notice me, but as soon as I get caught breaking curfew they suddenly see me. It's like I've lost my invisibility cloak or something," she huffed, "I want it back."

"They really ignore you?" I asked, trying best to sound skeptical, but it was difficult—I had witnessed the way people's eyes seemed to pass through Fallon and instead focus right on Fawn.

She ruffled her hair and the snow on top of her red hair melted into the strands. "Oh they do," she said, "or, at least, they did. People avoided me like the plague. Now all the guards watch my every move. How can you stand it?"

"It is very annoying," I agreed.

"That's an understatement."

I was about to ask Fallon why people would avoid her so much but she moved on before I could get a word out.

"So you did get to talk to your dad, right?"

I nodded.

"Cool, uhh…prison life treatin' him well?" she asked, sounding awkward and unsure for the first time since I'd met her, "I mean, he was being kept in a house so it couldn't have been that bad—"

"Fallon," I said, interrupting her, "he told me to escape."

"Let's do it."

I don't know what I was expecting her to say but it wasn't that. Maybe something more along the lines of "you're crazy, even I can't get you out of here", or something like that.

"But isn't it going to be impossible?" I plopped down on my bed.

"Probably," Fallon shrugged, "but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Don't you want to get out of here?"

"Of course I do."

Fallon raised her eyebrows at me, silently demanding that I tell the truth.

"But…I kind of do want to get this transforming into any animal thing down," I said sheepishly. Despite being forced to come to the tribe against my will, I had to admit I was intrigued—no—I was enamored with the idea of turning into any animal I wanted. It was something that had never crossed my mind, and probably never would have had I not been brought to the tribe. And yet, I promised my dad that I wouldn't make any real progress with my shapeshifting—at least not in front of any tribe members.

Fallon studied me like she was weighing something in her mind. "Having you able to turn into any animal could prove useful for getting out of here…" she started, then seemingly making a decision, she continued, "I think I can help you with that."

Despite my excitement at the possibility of actually being able to try shapeshfiting into other animals again, I couldn't help but recognize the flaw in Fallon teaching me. "How?" I asked, "I've already reviewed every shapeshifting technique known with my trainer, plus some I didn't even know existed, with next to no results. What do you know that he doesn't?"

"Everything," she said, "Trust me."

"Okay," I said, slightly suspicious but willing to trust Fallon for once, "so let's say we do manage to find a way out of here, how am I going to make it back to civilization? They told me when I first got here that I would die of starvation before I made it to another town."

"I think that's where your ability to turn into any animal will come in handy," Fallon said thoughtfully, "Besides, as long as you head in the right direction, I think you'll be fine."

"Yeah…" I didn't tell Fallon this but I wanted something a little more concrete than thinking I would be fine. "Anyway, about the shapeshifting training…"

"Well, we'll have to find a time that fits into your busy schedule," Fallon said, smirking at me.

I glared back at her. As if it was my fault I never had any time during the day. "I'm free after six," I told her, "Actually, make that seven. Yvette and Sebastian always look for me at dinner so they'd get suspicious if I didn't show up."

"Fine," Fallon nodded, "I'll meet you in the gym tomorrow at 7:30."

"The gym?" I asked, "Are you sure no one will see us?"

Fallon rolled her eyes. "Does anyone come in when you're training during the day?"

"No, well, except for Taz."

"Exactly," she stated, "No one ever uses that gym. We'll be fine." And with that, she left, climbing back through my window.

But Fallon and I didn't get to meet the next night, or the night after that. We both overestimated the guards' willingness to leave us alone. It wasn't until three days later that the guards decided Fallon had served her punishment, finally taking their eyes off of her once again. Me, on the other hand, it seemed was never going to get so lucky. I realized that the only way I was going to get to the gym was if I told my guards the truth. So, I told them I was going to the gym for extra training and they graciously escorted me there. Of course, they had no idea Fallon was the one waiting for me on the inside.

"I'll be back at my cabin by nine," I told the guard when we reached the entrance to the gym.

He studied me for a moment before telling me that he would pick me up at ten to nine and escort me back to my cabin. I nodded, not bothering to argue—at least he was willing to leave me alone for over an hour.

"Fallon?" I whispered as I entered the dark gym. The place definitely looked creepier at night. I could see why people tended to avoid it.

"Over here," she called from across the room, "God, you can talk normally you know. You make it sound like we're doing something illegal."

"Aren't we?" I asked, shoving my hands in the pocket of my robe (or what used to be Fallon's robe) as I walked up to her.

Fallon shrugged. "Actually, I think this is the least illegal thing we've done since we met," she said, "If anything I think the chief would be proud that you're taking extra time to train."

I nodded. "Okay, so what you want me to do?"

"What have you done with your trainer?"

"Mostly mind exercises," I told her, "You know, picturing the animal, imagining what it would be like to be that animal."

"What animal have you been focusing on?"

"A dog," I said, "specifically my friend's chocolate lab."

Fallon groaned. "_That_," she said, "is part of your problem."

"What do you mean?"

"The first animal you turned into was a wolf, right?" she asked.

"Right."

"So, a dog is _way_ too close in relation to a wolf. You can't shift into a dog because your body can't differentiate between the two yet." She paced around in a circle.

I had never thought about it that way. My trainer had always assumed a dog would be easy because I was so familiar with a wolf and I agreed with him. But now, I realized how wrong he was, and how right Fallon was.

"A wolf and a dolphin are nothing alike—well, except for the fact that they're both mammals. That's why it is so easy for you to turn into each one. It's easy to tell the difference."

What she was saying made so much sense. Maybe she did know more than I thought.

"Tell me what happened when you first turned into a dolphin," Fallon said, turning back to me.

I then proceeded to tell her about the shell in the ocean and swimming with my family. The more she listened the more she seemed to perk up.

Smiling, she said, "I think I know what we have to do."

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for an answer. What did I have to do to be able to shift into any animal?

Fallon rushed over to the other side of the gym where some regular workout equipment was kept. She beckoned me to follow and I did, curious. If she expected me to build up my strength with the equipment then she was crazy. From my hours with my trainer, I knew working out didn't make me shift.

"Okay," Fallon said, "look around. What do you see?"

"A bunch of workout equipment?"

"Yes, but let's say someone barges in here right now wanting to kill you…ooh! Say it's a hunter!"

The color drained from my face and looked down at the ground at Fallon's mention of hunters. I hadn't told her about what had really happened that day in the woods or Brad. In fact, I hadn't even told her about Jet. I hoped she either didn't notice my reaction, or just shrugged it off as a general fear of hunters.

"Alright, so a hunter comes in here looking to kill you. What do you do?" Fallon asked, excitement nearly pouring out of her ears.

"Umm, either run out the door or shift and attack him, hoping for the best," I said, staring at her as if she was crazy—I couldn't help it—I had no idea where she was going with this.

She shook her head furiously. "No!" she exclaimed, "You make him think you're not here!"

"Uhh, how do I do that?"

Fallon rolled her eyes at me—she seemed to do that a lot. "You _hide_."

I glanced around the room and frowned. The gym was one big open space, minus the workout equipment, which happened to only be a couple medicine balls, yoga mats, and two treadmills. There were absolutely no places to hide.

"Fallon," I said, truly starting to wonder if she'd gone crazy, "Not even a dwarf could hide in here. You'd have to be as small as a mouse—" I stopped midsentence when what she was saying finally hit me.

Fallon smiled at me. "The key to your shapeshifting lies in your instinct," she said, "You have to need to shift into these animals, just like you did when you wanted to get that seashell on the ocean floor."

I smiled back at her. "So," I started, "If a hunter chased me in here, then to escape him all I would have to do would be to shift into a mouse and hide under the treadmill."

"Exactly," Fallon agreed, "Different animals can help you in different situations."

She was absolutely right. How had no one realized that this could possibly be the most useful shapeshifting technique ever? How had Fallon discovered it?

A question that was on the tip of my tongue slipped loose. "Fallon?" I asked, "How did you figure this out?"

She shrugged, trying to make her discovery seem insignificant. "I spent years training to shift." There was something behind her answer that made me think she wasn't telling me the whole truth. It was then that I realized there was one important thing about Fallon that I didn't know—something that, in the tribe, was very odd.

"And, what animal can you turn into?"

She turned her back to me and was quiet for a minute. Then I saw her breath a heavy sigh before she spoke again. I had never heard Fallon sound so vulnerable. "I-I…I don't," she said finally.

"What do you mean?" I asked in a whisper.

She whipped back around to face me, on the brink of tears. "I don't turn into any animal." She gestured to her figure. "This is all there is. It's just me."

I couldn't believe it. The reason Fallon knew so much about shapeshifting was because she had desperately tried to get her body to shift into an animal, any animal. Fallon lived in the tribe, she had a twin sister who could turn into a fox, probably everyone she knew could turn into an animal, but she couldn't. In a town full of shapeshifters, she was the only one who wasn't a shapeshifter.

"May-maybe you're just a late bloomer?" I said softly.

She laughed bitterly at that. "I don't think so, Marina," she said, "I passed that mark three years ago. Everyone knows that fifteen is the age that your body forces you to shift, if you're a shapeshifter."

I did know that. I had seen it in action when I saw Jet's body force him to shift two years ago. "But, how is this even possible?" I asked, "Aren't both your parents shapeshifters?"

"Yeah," Fallon responded, "No one has a clue what's wrong with me. That's why everyone avoids me. They're afraid that my inability to shapeshift will someone pass to them or their children."

"That's ridiculous," I said, "The ability to shapeshift isn't a disease, it's genetic."

"Yeah, we've always known that, but still people are scared. I'm a freak."

"No you're not," I said quickly, "If anything, I'm the freak. Shfiting into any animal? Hell, shifting into two animals. It's unheard of."

Fallon chuckled softly. "Well, I guess we can be freaks together."

I nodded, smiling at her.

She wiped her eyes and when she looked up at me her vulnerable side had retreated back inside her. Once again, all I saw was badass Fallon. "Alright," she said firmly, "now let's test that hunter and mouse scenario."

I closed my eyes and imagined the scene. I imagined being chased by a hunter—it wasn't hard to do—I had had to run from hunters (specifically Brad) plenty of times before. In my mind, I heard the click of his gun, the pounding of feet, his (and my) labored breathing. I told myself that all I had to do to escape him was to hide, to be able to hide under the treadmill.

_Bang!_ The sound of the gym door slamming shook me from my thoughts. I looked to see Fallon smiling and standing next to the door. I practically jumped out of my skin at the sound, she scared me so bad.

She was still smiling as she walked over to me, her figure growing in size with every step.

"What the hell, Fallon?!" I yelled at her, "What were you thinking? You scared me half to death!"

She didn't answer me, she just kept smiling. When did Fallon get so tall?

"Fallon!" I shouted again. That was when I realized I wasn't actually talking. There was sound coming out of my mouth, but it wasn't in the form of words: it was in the form of small squeaks.

Excitement pulsed through me as I slowly turned my head down to look at my feet. They were a tannish, pink color and had tiny claw-like toes attached. They weren't human. They weren't even wolf. They were mouse feet.

I did it.

Squealing uncontrollably, I shifted back into my human form and rushed forward to hug Fallon.

"You did it!" she shouted.

"We did it!" We both laughed as we continued to hug.

By the time 8:50 rolled around, besides my usual wolf and dolphin, I managed to shift into a mouse, a frog, and a monkey. I knew after only a few more nights of training and I would truly be able to turn into any animal. It was the first time I felt hopeful in weeks.


	9. Rescuer

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You are the best! Wow, this is my longest chapter yet—over 4,000 words—certainly didn't expect that. For those who submitted characters a little while back, I didn't forget about you. The next round of characters will appear in the story in about five chapters or so. I will probably let you know who those characters are going to be in the next three chapters. Anyway, I hope everyone really likes reading this chapter! I know I had a good time writing it ;)**

I was right. Two days later, I could shift into any animal I wanted. It was amazing. The only problem was, was that I couldn't share my success with anyone. I wanted to tell my dad but there was no way I was going to get in to see him anytime soon, besides I knew it would be best if I stayed clear of him until Fallon and I actually hatched a plan to escape. Recently, however, escaping had taken a backseat in my mind. Of course, I still wanted to get out of the tribe, and, since I had now mastered my shifting abilities, I had a better chance of getting me and my dad out, but, for the past few days, all I could think about was shifting.

Even while I was training with my trainer, all I could think about was sneaking back into the gym later that night to really practice my shifting. Fallon had devised a game slash exercise for me where she would yell the name of an animal and I would have turn into the animal that would have the best chance of beating Fallon's animal in a fight or evading that animal. I have to admit I was horrible at it at first, but I got better. Now, when she screams rabbit, I turn into a fox. When she screams cheetah, I turn into a lion—because, while cheetahs are fast, they can't maintain that speed for a long time and lions are much stronger than cheetahs. The only one that stumped me (at first) was when she screamed dragon. After about a minute, I realized that the best animal to fight a dragon was probably a dragon.

Needless to say, Fallon was impressed by that. She didn't say so of course, but I could tell by the pure "wow" on her face.

My regular training sessions were absolute torture. I felt bad for deceiving my trainer and consistently failing. I hated seeing the desolate look on his face each time I shifted into my wolf form, different colored coat or not. But I had made a promise to my dad, and I wasn't about to break it just to see my trainer smile.

On the other hand, I had a feeling Taz was getting suspicious of me. These days, when he came in to watch my training sessions, he wouldn't talk to me, he'd just stand by the door and stare. He watched me like he was studying my emotions and not my shifting abilities. Whenever he was around I did my best to seem very frustrated, but I didn't think he bought my act. Although, at the same time, he never said anything to me about it.

It was my fourth day of pretending not to know how to shift into any animal, when my usual routine was interrupted. In the middle of the afternoon, Taz appeared in the doorway. Since he often came to observe, I didn't think anything of it. I just continued not shifting.

"Sorry to interrupt, Ryan," Taz said, addressing my trainer, "But I am to escort Marina back to her cabin immediately."

I turned to look at him frowning. Why on earth would I need to go back to my cabin now? I was in the middle of a training session. Wasn't my training the most important thing to the chief?

"Of course," my trainer responded, not arguing in the slightest.

What was going on?

Taz didn't offer any explanation. He just opened the gym door and beckoned for me to follow him outside.

I ran forward, my breath leaving clouds in front of me from the chilly air. "Taz," I said, walking beside him, "What's going on?"

We quickly reached the center square, and he pressed his lips together for a second before answering. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you, Marina."

"Why not?"

He didn't respond.

I looked around at all the people in the tribe. Many were hurrying past us, towards the entrance to the Southern corner. "Taz!" I said, raising my voice a bit, "I think I deserve to know why I'm being locked in my cabin in the middle of the afternoon."

He sighed, resigning. "Yeah, but I still can't tell you the reason."

It was moments like these that I wondered whether or not I could really trust Taz. Aside from Fallon, he was definitely the only friend I had in the tribe, but he also had a duty to his father and the tribe as its future leader—something I could tell he took very seriously.

"Just know that I'm doing this for your protection," Taz told me as we climbed the steps of my cabin. My usual two guards were positioned outside the house.

I glared at him. "Not good enough," I said, walking inside and closing the door to him.

I ran to my room and looked out the window, making sure no one was around that side of the house. As quietly as I could, I slid the window open about six inches and then removed Fallon's robe, shifting into a small—and unnoticeable—sparrow. One thing I had yet to master was flying. I didn't know how Skye did it. Flying was very hard. Running, swimming—easy. Flying? Not so much.

However, I had managed to figure out how to take flight and stay there for more than a couple seconds. I just hoped that would be enough to get me from my cabin to the Southern corner once more without anyone getting suspicious. Then again, as far as the tribe was concerned, I had yet to shift into anything other than a wolf and dolphin.

I hopped up to the windowsill and ducked outside. Spreading my little wings as far as they would go, I jumped. Normally, the jump from my window wouldn't have been so bad, but, being a tiny bird who had yet to master flying, the drop to the ground looked terrifying. I had never appreciated the bravery of baby birds until that moment.

For half a second, I thought I was actually falling and I almost shifted back into human form before my wings caught me, allowing me to drift a bit in the alley. I flapped my wings, pushing the air beneath me, and began to climb. Thankfully, I managed to reach the roof of the cabin next to me before my wings failed me. From the roof I could see a crowd around the path to the Southern corner. I had to get over there.

I did my best to hop to the edge of the roof on the other side then jumped once more, desperately hoping I would make it to the next roof. I did. After that, hopping from roof to roof got easier. It took about five minutes for me to make it to the roof of one of the buildings in the Southern corner, but, thankfully, the crowd was still gathered there, so, whoever (or whatever) they were waiting for hadn't come by yet.

I waited with them, straining to see as far down the walkway into the Southern corner as possible. I knew the entrance to the tribe was at the tip of the Southern corner. Was somebody else coming to visit the tribe? Was it another chief? Was that why Taz had said I needed to stay in my cabin for my own safety? What if other tribal leaders had been trying to capture me all along? Or maybe the outer guards had just discovered another trespasser slash prisoner like Drew? But then why would I have to stay in my cabin?

Below me, the other members of the tribe whispered fervently to each other. Apparently they were as clueless as I was.

A few minutes later, silence spread across the crowd as the chief appeared at the end of the path…and he wasn't alone. Following behind him was a slew of guards. I searched the pack of guards for the newcomer.

I nearly fell off the roof when I found him.

He wore a typical shifting robe and his hands were tied behind his back, forcing the robe to part some in the front, revealing a v-shaped section of his muscular chest. His hair was ruffled and messy, with the occasional twig or pine needle sticking out, as if he had been wandering the woods for many days. There was no emotion visible on his face, though his gorgeous green eyes darted every which way.

Jet had found me.

I felt like I might explode with happiness. I wanted nothing more than to fly down off that roof into his arms. But I couldn't, for more than one reason: the most important being that no one could know that I could shift into other animals.

So this was why I had been rushed back to my cabin.

The chief no doubt recognized Jet from last fall (and also probably suspected that he'd come to the tribe looking for me) and realized that neither Jet nor I could know the other was in the tribe. I couldn't help but ruffle my feathers at the thought. Who did Sebastian think he was keeping Jet's presence from me?

At the entrance to the main square the procession stopped. I saw Yvette and Taz step forward as the chief moved to stand beside his wife and son. The guards parted to allow Jet to see who stood before him.

"Welcome," I heard the chief say, "I am Sebastian, the chief of this tribe—as I'm sure you remember—this is my wife, Yvette, and our son, Theodore." Jet muttered something that I couldn't hear.

"Please state your name and the reason for your visit," Yvette commanded, pleasantness completely forgotten—or, maybe, she never possessed any in the first place.

This time, I clearly heard Jet's response.

"My name is John Holden," he said, sounding like he was making an opening statement for the debate team rather than introducing himself to a whole town of people, "and I have come here to learn about tribal life and my ancestry."

Taz frowned in confusion. "Your ancestry?" he asked, voicing what I was sure was the question floating around everyone else's head.

"I am Deirdre's son," Jet said.

A buzz of whispers erupted amongst the townspeople. I could only imagine what they were thinking. First, my dad turns up alive and now Jet turns up claiming to be Deirdre's son. The only two people to successfully runaway from the tribe (aside from Jet's aunt and cousin, Valerie and Kelsey), were suddenly reappearing in some way to the tribe. I managed to catch snippets of what some people were saying.

"Deirdre?" the woman nearest to me asked her husband, "Valerie's older sister?"

"The one who was able to escape?" another asked, jumping in the conversation.

"Yeah, she and Mark were the only to escape from the tribe," the husband answered.

"Except, the chief caught Mark."

"He can't really be her son."

"No, no. I think he is. I knew Deirdre, and he looks a lot like her."

"That doesn't mean he is."

"Do you think Deirdre's still out there somewhere?"

"Do you think that's why Valerie ran away during the exhibition? To find her sister?"

"Maybe. But Deirdre disappeared over twenty years ago."

Nobody seemed to know what to make of Jet's sudden appearance. I didn't care what they thought though. I was just happy to see him. Even if he had come here to find out more about his mother, I was determined to leave with him when the time came.

"Everyone quiet!" Sebastian shouted over the steadily increasing roar of the crowd. Everyone immediately stopped talking. I bet the teachers at my high school would love to have the power to silence their students the way the chief did.

"Mr. Holden," Yvette said formerly, "You cannot simply waltz in here, claiming to be a tribe member's son." I easily picked up on how Yvette referred to Deirdre as a current member of the tribe, despite her disappearance. But for once, Yvette seemed rather keen on not having Jet stay in the tribe. Did she know that Jet and I knew each other? Had Sebastian told her? I could only assume he had, given the fact that it had been Taz who had escorted me back to my cabin.

"He is Deirdre's son," came a voice from the crowd, one I didn't recognize. I watched as an older woman, with stark white hair, pushed her way to the front of the pack. "I recognized him immediately for who he was," the woman continued, "He bares such a striking resemblance to Deirdre. For a moment, I thought he _was_ her."

I stared at the woman. She kept one eye on Jet, while her other seemed to be daring Yvette to say something else. On the other hand, she didn't look particularly happy to see Jet, merely surprised.

"Tamara," Yvette started, but she didn't get to finish because the old woman cut her off.

"There is no reason for him not to be welcomed here as one of our own.

"Tammy is right, Yvette," the chief said, "I witnessed his shapeshifting abilities only moments ago. He is a—rather magnificent—black wolf. We have no reason not to let him stay."

I smiled to myself—for the first time since I met the guy, I finally agreed with the chief on something.

"I know that my mother lived here until her late teens," Jet said, directly at Yvette, "and that she could shift into a German Shepherd."

The chief smiled at Jet, but the smile was as fake as could be. I was sure he was only hoping Jet had a location on Deirdre—well, he was going to be very disappointed—unless, of course, Jet had discovered more about his real mother since I left for Australia. "See?" the chief said, still smiling, "He is Deirdre's son, and is therefore welcome to stay here as a guest for as long as he likes."

"And, as he is a _guest_," Tammy said, emphasizing the word guest, and stepping forward once more, "in the tribe, he will need a place to stay." She smiled sincerely at Jet. "I would like to propose that he stay with me in my cabin, as I would like some time to get to know my grandson."

Jet's eyes widened in surprise at Tammy's statement, as I was sure mine had. Apparently, he hadn't considered the fact that he might still have a grandmother alive in the tribe.

The chief considered Jet's grandmother for a moment, but then his expression softened. "I think that is a great idea," he said while, next to him, Yvette scowled.

That was when someone else stepped forward. "Excuse me?" she said, batting her eyelashes at Jet like someone typing out a message on a telegraph, "but I would love to give John a tour of the tribe." Fawn smiled sweetly—or as sweetly someone like her could—at Sebastian and Yvette.

_Oh hell no._

On the one hand, I was glad that Fawn had finally realized she didn't have a chance with Taz—he deserved someone so much better than her—but on the other, she had set her sights on Jet. And there was no way I was going to let her get close enough to even breath on him, nevermind touch him.

"Uhh, Fawn? Don't you think his _grandmother_ would like to show him around?" Fallon said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her twin.

Thank you, Fallon! She had saved me again. I was beginning to lose count of the number of times she's come to my rescue.

"I agree with the young lady," Tammy said, "I would like to be the one to show my grandson our home."

Fawn shot an equally hateful glare back at Fallon, which, she ignored.

"It's settled then!" the chief exclaimed, clapping his hands together. I took that as my cue to leave—I had to get back to my cabin before anyone realized I was gone.

*/*/*

I pretty much spent the rest of the day pacing in my room. More than once I considered sneaking out again to find Jet, but I knew that, one way or another, that would end badly. I just hoped that Fallon would come to visit me tonight so I could talk her into smuggling me into Jet's grandmother's cabin. I had a good feeling she would gladly help me.

Around six-thirty, I walked hopefully out the front door of my cabin to head to dinner. However small, there was always a chance I would see Jet sometime between when I left the cabin to when I returned. But my hope deflated faster than a balloon spiraling out of air, when my usual two guards blocked my path.

"Your dinner will be brought to your cabin tonight," one said.

"You are to wait inside until it is delivered," the other added when he noticed I wasn't moving.

I narrowed my eyes at both of them, but complied. My dinner arrived half an hour later, but I was too anxious to eat much. I stuck my leftovers—aka most of my meal—in the fridge of the small kitchenette in the corner of the room and returned to my pacing.

It was then that a horrible thought occurred to me: what if Jet didn't _want _to see me? We hadn't exactly been on the best of terms when I left for Australia, given my conflicted feelings for Brad. In fact, my shaky friendships with both guys had been one of the reasons I practically ran away to Australia.

A little after eight, I heard Fallon climbing through the window into my bedroom. I ran to her, throwing the door open in my haste and startling her. "Fallon!" I exclaimed as she stumbled into the room, "I need your help."

She looked up at me with one eyebrow raised. "Oh?" she mocked, "and which of my services do you require today, oh great one?"

Ever since I started shifting into any and every animal, Fallon has jokingly treated me as royalty. "Stop it," I said, "This is serious."

"Alright, alright," she said, holding up her hands, "What's wrong?"

"I need you to get me into Tammy's house to see John," I told her, "and I need it to be tonight."

"Your wish is my command, my liege," she said, bowing.

I rolled my eyes at her—something that was probably a first—it always seemed to be the other way around. "Come on, I really need your help."

"Okay, I think I can get you in there," she started, "but you'll need to fit in my jacket pocket." She pulled open her pocket to show me the size of the hole in the fabric.

"I think I can do that."

"So, can I ask why you want to see this John guy?"

I couldn't help but blush at her question. "He's—uhh—kind of my best friend turned boyfriend."

"And you didn't tell me about him?" Fallon asked, outraged, "I thought we were friends!"

"Well, it's kind of an awkward situation," I relented, "We're taking a break right now…because I may or may not have feelings for another guy."

Fallon whistled. "Oooh, Marina…"

"I know, I know," I said, cutting her off, "That's not even the worst part."

"What could be worse than having feelings for two different guys?" she asked.

"How completely different the two guys are."

Fallon frowned, not understanding.

Grimacing, I continued. "You already know John is a shapeshifter." Fallon nodded. "Well, the other guy, Brad, is kind of a-shapeshifter-hunter-who-knows-what-I-am-and-love s-me-anyway," I said, the words rushing from my lips like rapids.

Fallon's mouth dropped open. "You're in love with a hunter?" she whispered.

I nodded shamefully. "I'm in love with a hunter and a shapeshifter."

"Who are you going to choose?" Fallon asked, "Cause, you know, you have to pick one of them eventually."

"I know," I said, "but every time I come close to making a decision, I remember that I will lose the other one."

Fallon smiled sadly at me for a moment before she started chuckling.

"What is it?" I asked, incredulously.

"Your life could be a soap opera," she said between laughs.

I smiled at that—she was right. "Okay," I said finally, "So are we going to do this or not?"

"Yeah," Fallon shrugged, "Just shift into something small and I'll stick you in my pocket."

"How are you going to get inside?" I asked her. I felt like that was a perfectly valid question, considering the way she secretly met with me was to sneak in my bedroom window, and I didn't want her doing that to Jet. It would probably get us caught.

She looked at me as if I was a dumb blonde or something. "I'm going to knock on the door and ask to talk to John," she said, as if it was the most obvious answer.

"Jet," I said automatically.

"What?"

"Jet," I said again, "Get his grandmother to invite you inside, and then ask to talk to him privately, but be sure to call him Jet."

"Why?"

"It's my nickname for him," I explained, "If you call him that, he'll know we're friends and he'll make more of an effort to get you two alone to talk."

"Are you sure?" Fallon asked, her expression full of doubt.

"Positive," I said, "There are only two people in the world who call him Jet—and the other is currently on another continent."

Heaving a great sigh, Fallon said, "Okay, well let's do this then."

I nodded and shifted into a mouse—the only animal I could think of that would be small enough to fit in Fallon's pocket. The walk to Tamara's cabin wasn't short—she must live in a different corner—but I couldn't peek out to see which one in case someone spotted me. Thankfully no one stopped Fallon. She informed me that things had returned to normal—that is, everyone ignored her once more—and, since she wasn't out past curfew, she didn't expect anyone to stop her.

Despite the long walk, Fallon was climbing steps and knocking on a front door much too soon. I could feel my tiny heart beating frantically against my chest. What if this didn't work? What if Jet's grandmother refused to leave him alone with Fallon? Should I reveal myself then? Would Tamara tell someone that I had finally learned to control my shifting?

The door opened and the porch was illuminated, the light pouring in through the fabric of Fallon's jacket.

"Hello, Tammy," Fallon greeted the old woman pleasantly.

"Hello, Fallon," I heard Jet's grandmother respond, "What brings you here?"

"Well, you see, I thought I would stop by to introduce myself to John. While he may not be staying long, I figured he might want to meet some kids his own age…you know, so he can get a better idea of what life was like for his mother here," Fallon said, lying rather easily. I was impressed—she even put the right amount of teenage embarrassment into her explanation.

I held my breath waiting for Tammy to answer.

"How thoughtful," Tammy said, "Come on in." I sighed in relief.

Fallon walked inside and I heard someone, I'm guessing Tammy, close the door behind her. "Hi," Fallon said, addressing someone else, "I'm Fallon."

"John," I heard Jet say and my heart skipped a beat—he was so close—this time I could literally reach out and touch him, "nice to meet you."

"Do you think I could talk to you alone for a few minutes, Jet?" Fallon asked.

If Jet was taken aback by the use of his nickname, I didn't know. In my head, I begged him to do what Fallon asked. I thought that surely the nickname would work.

"Of course," Jet said.

Fallon walked into another room and I heard Jet enter in behind her. Once he had closed the door, Fallon fished me out of her pocket.

"What do you—what is that?" Jet asked, spotting the mouse (aka me) in Fallon's hand. Ignoring Jet, she placed me down on the bed and stepped back.

I looked up at him. Finally, he was _right there_.

I shifted back into my human form and rushed forward, throwing my arms around him. He wrapped his own arms tightly around me, holding me to him as if he never wanted to let me go. I buried my face in the nape of his neck and took a deep breath in—I was home at last.

**Okay, so who missed Jet? I know I did :)**


	10. Prison Break

**Thank you thank you thank you for all the reviews! You guys obviously missed Jet as much as I did ;) Okay, next chapter…here we go!**

After a few seconds of clinging to Jet, I became aware to two things. One: Jet and I were supposed to be taking a break. And two: I was naked.

_Oops._

I reluctantly began to pull away from Jet. Very slowly, his hands ran across my back, releasing me from his embrace—apparently he was just as reluctant to end our hug as I was.

I turned to Fallon who threw the blanket from the bed around me and shot me a smirk that seemed to say, "a hard time choosing, huh?" I ignored it. Pulling the blanket tightly around me I looked up at Jet—who glanced at me while shoving his hands in his pockets—and said the first thing that popped into my mind, "Hi."

"Hi," he said, smiling at me. Fallon plopped down on the bed, resting her chin on her fist, as if she was watching a very interesting play. The smile dropped from Jet's face. I tried to ignore Fallon and focus on him instead.

"You're here."

I squeezed my lips together. "I am."

"And you're a mouse," Jet said hesitantly, rocking back on his heels.

"Yeah," I said softly, glancing at the floor, "A lot has changed since I left."

He raised his eyebrows, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I can see that."

I looked up at him but couldn't hold his gaze for more than a few seconds. I took a deep breath to try and steady my nerves. "Actually," I started, "things changed back in November."

Jet's mouth turned down in a frown. "What do you mean?"

I turned away from him and began pacing around the small room—after spending almost all afternoon pacing, the motion felt comforting—and I needed a little comfort for this conversation. "Uhh, remember the prophecy we overheard Rebekka and my dad talking about?"

He nodded. "Rebekka was convinced that you were the one the prophecy talked about because you could turn into two animals."

On the bed, Fallon scoffed, but quickly turned it into a cough when I shot her a death glare. "It's called the Porias Prophecy, and it mentions a shapeshifter 'of many forms,'" I told him.

"And you think you're the shapeshifter it's talking about?" Jet asked.

I didn't answer him. I just kept pacing. I didn't _think_ I was the one anymore, I _knew_ I was.

Jet grabbed my arm, stopping my rhythmic movement, and pulled me back to him. "Marina, you don't seriously think it's you, do you?"

"Jet," I started, "You just saw me shift from a mouse. You already know I can change into a wolf and a dolphin. Even that isn't supposed to be possible."

He ran his hands down my arms until they reached my wrists. "So you can turn into three animals instead of one? That's not—"

"It's more than that."

"What do you mean?"

"Ugh!" Fallon exclaimed, standing up off the bed, "Is everyone from California as slow as you two?"

Jet and I both glared at her.

"'One of _many_ forms,'" Fallon said slowly, "As in she can turn into _any_ animal."

Jet's head snapped back to me at Fallon's words—his expression silently asking me if Fallon was lying.

"It's true," I said, pursing my lips, then began listing the animals I had successfully turned into, "I can shift into a mouse, a frog, a monkey, virtually any type of cat or dog, a horse, a dragon, a snake—although I have to say I did not like being a snake—having no appendages was really weird." I gave him a half-smile.

He just stared at me, eyes wide. "A dragon? Like the chief?" he asked finally, his voice sounding a bit higher than normal. Perhaps I shouldn't have told him about that one.

I nodded, squeezing the edges of the blanket in my fists.

He returned my half-smile. "Well, I guess it'll be easier for us to get you out of here." Inside, I breathed a sigh of relief—so he had come to rescue me.

"Us?" Fallon asked, perking up again.

"Yeah," Jet said, glancing at Fallon before returning his gaze to me, "Brad and I came together."

Words spewed from my mouth before my brain could stop them. "You and _Brad_ are working together? Both of you?"

Jet smirked, glaring at me a bit. "He was the only person I could think of who might have an idea of where the tribe was—because you know Geoff and his family were completely useless—besides, he also had a car."

"And he knew?" I tightened the blanket around my back. "Where the tribe was?"

Jet scrunched up his nose slightly, tilting his head to one side. "Not exactly."

"So how'd you find us?" Fallon leaned back against the wall the bed was pressed up against.

"Apparently, every time a hunter encounters a shapeshifter they plot the point on some sort of online map only accessible to hunters. So, using those points, we came up with some possible locations for the tribe," Jet explained, "Thankfully, our second guess was the right one."

I had to admit, I was impressed. The fact that Jet and Brad would work together at all impressed me. Although, come to think of it, it did make sense—I was the one thing they had in common.

"So Brad is outside the tribe right now with his Charger, ready to make a quick getaway when we need it?" I asked.

Jet nodded. "He's also there if we need any outside help escaping."

"But how will he know if he's needed?" Fallon asked, butting in again, "You have no way of communicating with him. And I'm almost positive the chief won't let you out of the tribe until you decide to leave for good…if he even keeps that promise." Fallon's voice dropped to a bitter whisper that only I could hear at her last statement.

Jet's answer was to pull a small skin-toned, pebble looking thing from his ear. "It's a comms unit, from Brad's family's hunting supplies," he said, "It has a ten mile radius, so we can talk even while I'm in the tribe and he's circling around it almost ten miles out."

Fallon took the device—that couldn't have been bigger than my fingernail—out of Jet's hand. She looked impressed, but, of course, she didn't say so.

But I wasn't thinking about how impressive the small communication device was. I was thinking about the person on the other end. "So, Brad's been listening to our entire conversation?"

"Yeah," Jet said, "That little thing can pick up a lot."

So he heard my explanation of being able to turn into any animal. I had kind of wanted to tell him that little bit of information in person. I wanted to be able to see and gage his reaction. One of the main reasons hunters hunted shapeshifters was because they thought we were more animal than human. Wouldn't I be proving their theory to be correct by being any and every animal?

"Oh," was my brilliant response as Jet took back the device from Fallon and stuck it in his ear. "Uhh, hi Brad."

Jet wasn't smiling when he turned to me and told me that Brad said hi back. The look on his face made me wonder what else Brad had said that Jet chose not to repeat. I could tell that—whatever it was—it wasn't something that I wouldn't have liked but rather something Jet didn't like.

Jet shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants, looking around the room before returning his gaze to me. "We're here to get you out, Mar. So, whenever you want to leave, we'll be ready."

Standing up, and placing her hands on her hips in the perfect imitation of her evil twin, Fallon snapped, "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

Jet raised his eyebrows. "We'll just sneak her out at night when everyone's asleep."

"And what about the guards? Or maybe that giant wall you walked through on your way in here? I mean, you had to have seen that. You did come to the tribe in the middle of _daylight_." Fallon raised one hand above her head to emphasize the size of the wall surrounding the tribe.

"Fallon, relax," I shot back before she could embarrass Jet any further, "Escaping at night _had_ been our first thought too, remember?"

Fallon scowled but didn't say anything.

"I've been thinking about it," I started, "I think the best time to escape would be very early in the morning."

"Why's that?" Jet asked.

I glanced over at Fallon who emitted a small grunt to indicate she was listening. "The guards change shifts at 6am," I said, "If we leave around five, then the guards on the twelve to six shift will be exhausted and more likely to miss us."

"Or more likely to fall for our tricks," Fallon added.

Jet shrugged. "Sounds like a good idea to me." His eyes shifted to the right as if he was trying to see his own ear. "Brad agrees," he sighed, looking back to me and Fallon.

Fallon plopped back down on the bed. "Great," she said, fake enthusiasm snaking from her lips, "we're all in favor."

I moved my left hand up my other arm to grip my elbow. "There's one other thing. We have to get my dad out too."

"You found your father?" Jet asked.

I nodded. "He's being held captive in a cottage behind the chief's house."

The edges of Jet's mouth turned down slightly. "Well, that complicates things a bit."

From the bed, Fallon rolled her eyes. "We broke in there once before, I think we can do it again. I graciously volunteer to lead the guards away and then you two can figure out how to get her dad out."

"But, Fallon, what if they added more guards since last time?" I asked, "We haven't been back since you were caught."

She shrugged, clearly unfazed by the possibility of more guards. "So I'll stake it out during the day first. No big deal."

I shook my head. "I don't think you should go near the chief's house until we're absolutely sure we need the distraction. They might get suspicious. Jet would be more likely to get by unnoticed."

"More than me? I'm practically invisible!"

"Yeah, and if I get caught, I can just say I got lost while looking for the chief," Jet added, ignoring Fallon's comment.

"Fine," Fallon pouted.

"We still need to find a way to get the gate open," I said, trying to remember how it had opened for me when I first arrived.

"Actually," Fallon said, her voice slick with slyness, "I don't think we have to."

"And why's that, oh wise one?" I asked, initiating a bit of payback for all the times she made fun of me for being the one in the prophecy.

"Well, you see my queen," she started—clearly my attempt failed—smiling at me, "Earlier today, while I was being _invisible_, I found a section in the wall that is loose. With at least two of us putting weight on it, I'm sure it'll budge enough to sneak through."

"Does anyone else know about this section?" Jet asked.

"Nah," Fallon said, "People rarely walk down that way." She laughed. "People don't go down alleys in general, nevermind the alley behind an empty house in the least desirable area to live."

"Did anyone see you?"

Fallon shook her head. "I was completely alone when I found it. That girl, Drew, saw me leaving the alley but you can't really find the spot unless you're looking for it."

"Okay." Jet nodded. "It sounds like a good plan. I'll count the guards around your father's prison and—"

"—And then we make a run for it the next morning," I said, finishing Jet's sentence. We were going to make it out—I was determined to leave the tribe behind me.

*/*/*/*

The next day, I woke up earlier than normal. Usually, when there's something exciting such as the first day of school, or even going on vacation, happening the next day, people find it hard to sleep the night before. I had a hard time sleeping last night—I couldn't even imagine what I would be like that night.

My mind wouldn't seem to settle down, no matter how hard I tried to think soothing thoughts. Instead, the thoughts swirling in my head consisted of Jet, Brad, getting my dad out of prison, how the chief would react if we were caught, how _Yvette_ would react if we were caught, what Taz would think, Jet's grandmother, my new shifting abilities, and of course whether or not we'd actually all make it out. Needless to say, there was _a lot_ on my mind.

During training, I didn't have to pretend to fail at shifting. There were so many other things on my mind that I couldn't have focused enough to properly shift if my life depended on it. I didn't even manage to change the color of my coat. I spent the whole afternoon shifting back and forth between human and wolf form. My trainer didn't even comment. He just watched, losing hope in time with his worsening posture.

When Taz walked in, my trainer told me to take a ten minute break. I had a feeling he didn't want Taz seeing me—and thereby him—fail, again.

"Hey," I said casually as I grabbed a cup of water and stood beside Taz.

His eyes narrowed, studying me. "Why aren't you trying?"

I coughed a bit, almost choking on my water. "What are you talking about?" I asked as innocently as I could.

"You know I've been watching you," he commented, "When you're trying to shift into another animal you have this look of complete concentration on your face. But then, when you have your body actually shift, you lose that look of concentration—as if you are resigning yourself to your wolf form."

I faked a shrug and focused on my water. "I am trying."

"I think you're lying," he said, his eyes still on me. Was I really that terrible of a liar that everyone knew when I wasn't telling the truth? When Taz spoke again, his voice was gentler, less accusing. "What's really going on, Marina? You know you can trust me."

"Can I?" I shot, my gaze snapping up to meet his. He seemed surprised by my reaction. It probably wasn't been the best way to convince him of my innocence. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, finishing the water in my cup, and threw it in the trash. Turning back to Taz, I sighed. "I have to get back to training."

He nodded, not responding to my outburst and allowing me to walk away without answering his questions. He was definitely suspicious, but, whether or not he would act on his suspicions seemed up in the air. I hoped he would choose to forget about them—at least until tomorrow morning. I knew Taz was my friend, but, how good of a friend, I wasn't sure.

*/*/*/*

I was as pleasant as ever at dinner—actually, more pleasant than I've ever been. Taz didn't say a word when I sat down at a table with his family as usual. I made small talk with the chief, and even did my best not to cringe whenever Yvette spoke. I acted as I would have acted had they not kidnapped me and kept me as a prisoner. Every time I smiled at them I thought about the looks on their faces when they discovered I was gone tomorrow morning. Just picturing their surprise and outrage made me grin.

Nobody mentioned Jet—not that I really expected them to. I was sure the chief had ordered the guards to keep Jet and I from seeing each other not matter what. That had probably been the reason for my extra guard today.

Later that night, I wanted nothing more than to go see Jet again—just to make sure we were all set for the morning and to make sure Brad was clear on where he had to meet us—okay, so maybe that wasn't completely true. Of course I wanted everything to go smoothly tomorrow, but I really wanted to see Jet just for the sake of seeing him. Until he appeared in the tribe yesterday, I hadn't realized how much I missed him.

But I couldn't risk sneaking out that night. I could wait a few hours.

I settled into bed, thinking of how I would get to see Jet again tomorrow. The thought slowed my racing heart—until I remembered that I would get to see Brad tomorrow as well. It wasn't that I didn't want to see Brad—oh no, I was actually excited to see him—but, having the two of them together, along with my dad, was going to get very awkward very quickly. My dad didn't even know that Brad knew Jet and I were shapeshifters, and he most certainly didn't know Brad was one of the hunters who attacked last fall.

I foresaw a lot of explaining and scolding in my near future.

Surprisingly, I managed to fall asleep rather quickly that night. I guess the lack of sleep from the night before sent me over the edge into oblivion.

Oblivion did not last long.

I awoke in the middle of the night to a blaring alarm, and, thinking the house was on fire (I mean, come one, what other kind of alarm would go off at two o'clock in the morning?), I bolted out of bed. Realizing that there was no extreme source of heat in the house, I glanced out my window to see people, in their coats and snow boots, racing down their front steps and heading for the main square.

What was going on?

Whatever it was, my gut told me I wasn't going to like it.

I pulled my own boots—or, rather, Taz's sister's boots—on my feet, grabbed a jacket and raced outside. I immediately realized something was up: the guards usually stationed outside my cabin had mysteriously disappeared. Had they caught someone breaking curfew again? But an alarm hadn't gone off when they caught Fallon. Something wasn't right.

There was already a crowd forming in the main square when I approached. I spotted Fallon's orange head despite the dim lighting and pushed my way over to her.

"Fallon?" I half-shouted, wincing at the sound of the still screeching alarm, "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" she yelled back.

If Fallon didn't know then it must be something really big. I had always assumed Fallon knew everything about the tribe.

We huddled together, eyes scanning the crowd for the chief or anything that seemed out of place. I noticed a number of guards to my left, making their way towards the center of the square.

"There," I said, pointing to the clump of guards ushering people back so they could get through. Just like when Jet arrived yesterday (or technically two days ago, I suppose), the crowd that had gathered fell silent when the chief stepped up onto a small wooden platform. I wondered if he ever made "state of the tribe" addresses from that platform.

When Yvette followed suit, dragging with her a struggling Drew, I shot a nervous glance at Fallon. This couldn't be good.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the chief boasted, "I apologize for waking you at this hour of the night, but I'm afraid we had someone break curfew."

I frowned—that still didn't explain the alarm. And, judging from Fallon's confused expression, I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

That was when Yvette stepped forward, still firmly holding onto Drew's upper arm. "This girl was found in the alley behind the old Grennon cabin. The alarm sounded because she was attempting to break through a loose section of the wall and run away. As a consequence of her actions, she will spend the next two weeks in isolation. Thanks to Drew, here—and in case anyone else had any ideas—the alarm will no longer be active only during curfew. It will be on constantly. And just as a reminder, if you wish to go outside the walls you must put in a request with the council and, of course, exit only through the main gates."

Yvette took a small step back once more as he husband cleared his throat. "So, umm," the chief said awkwardly, glancing around at all the half-asleep and most likely annoyed faces, "once again, I apologize for waking everyone up. I hope you have a good rest of your night."

"This is your one and only warning," Yvette added. Despite the number of people surrounding me, I was sure _I _was the one she was glaring at when she said it.

I turned my back to Yvette, leaning towards Fallon's ear. "So," I gulped, "do we have a plan b?"


	11. On the Run

**Thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews! They always make my day, and to all my U.S. readers, happy Fourth of July! Yay for fireworks and independence :P**

The first part of Plan B wasn't any different from our initial plan. We still had to get my dad out and Fallon still had to distract the guards who were positioned outside the basement prison. Thankfully, when Jet staked out the place the other day he reported that there were only two guards standing guard. Despite the bad news that Drew had stolen our escape route (and had gotten caught doing so), Jet told Fallon the next morning that he had even located the keys to my dad's prison on one of the guards. It was my job to grab them.

I just hoped that we were actually able to successfully execute this plan.

I tried not to think about what would happen if we got caught. Aside from the few choice words she had for Yvette and the chief that night, no one had seen or heard of Drew since Yvette had carted her away. Part of me felt bad for Drew. Like me, all she wanted was to escape the tribe that wrongfully imprisoned her. If we had more time, I would have considered finding her and helping her break out too, but, with Yvette's warning echoing in our heads, we agreed that the sooner we left the better.

Checking the time, I opened my window and stuck my head out into the chilly morning air. The temperature had definitely increased a bit over the past two days—it was still pretty cold out—but it rose just enough to melt most of the remaining snow. That meant that, if we were successful, we would be less likely to leave footprints for anyone from the tribe to follow. Of course, there was always the fact that they could track my scent, but, hopefully, once Jet and I made it to Brad it wouldn't matter whether or not they found my scent.

It was still dark out—at four-thirty in the morning the sun had yet to rise. I had gotten out of bed an hour ago, figuring at that point an hour of sleep (if I miraculously managed to fall asleep during that hour) wouldn't help me any more than no sleep. I had gone over the plan in my head at least a dozen times as well as practiced shifting into various small animals.

I knew I wasn't just prepared, but also ready—and yet, I couldn't help feeling nervous. I still hadn't perfected my flying. If our plan did work and we made it home, I would have to ask Skye for pointers. Flying was the one part of being a shapeshifter that didn't come naturally to me—well, that and possibly breathing fire when in dragon form—I had yet to try that and, truthfully, wasn't too eager to start. While being able to shift into any animal was fun and exciting, having that amount of power also scared me.

But I couldn't worry about that now. Fallon and Jet would be waiting for me.

I shifted into a black cat, jumped up onto my open windowsill and down into the dirt below. Keeping to the shadows, I managed to make it to our meeting spot, just outside the main square. Fallon and Jet were already there, Jet still in human form—but, then again, him being a wolf wasn't exactly part of the plan. I, on the other hand, had to be able to shift between multiple animals.

"You ready?" Fallon asked, holding out her hand for me. I nodded my cat head, something that I was sure looked odd. Concentrating on the small bird form I was supposed to be morphing into, I shifted from the black cat to a wren—a smaller bird typically with brownish coloring and a beak longer than a sparrow. Fallon had thought it would be the best type of bird for what I needed to do, and still be small enough to hide in her pocket.

Spreading my wings, I stumbled a bit as I hopped into the air, fumbling to flap my wings just enough to settle in Fallon's palm. I saw her purse her lips in amusement but thankfully she didn't say anything. She knew I wasn't the best flyer.

She carefully helped me into her jacket pocket, then she and Jet snuck off towards the cottage behind the chief's house. We came around the back of the cottage, being sure to stay hidden in the shrubbery that lined that section of the wall.

"Okay, remember," Fallon whispered to Jet, "Don't come out until you hear me say 'you'll never catch me.'"

"I know," Jet said, rather irritably. I smiled to myself. Clearly Jet wasn't too fond of Fallon, but, then again, Fallon did tend to push a lot of people's buttons, mine included.

Leaving Jet crouched behind the bushes, she tiptoed around the side of the house to the front door. Not bothering to be quiet anymore, she turned the doorknob and walked right in as if she owned the place. She let her footsteps echo across the floor as she made her way over to the basement door.

Fallon held the door open for a few seconds, both of us listening. Then… "Hell-ohh?" Fallon called down the steps, smiling when we heard the grunting and shuffling of the guards below. She quickly closed the door, pushing back against it as the footsteps of the guards thundered up the stairs towards us.

When the door didn't immediately give under their light pressure, one of the guards yelled, "Who's there? You're not supposed to be here."

I did my best to fly out of Fallon's pocket, landing on the counter nearby as she backed away from the door. A second later, the two guards came barreling into the room, no doubt expecting the force holding them in the basement to still be against the door.

"You again!" One shouted spotting Fallon, "Did you not learn your lesson last time?"

Fallon crossed her arms over her chest as I crept towards the belt loop of the second guard. "What lesson?" she asked, sugar pouring from her upturned lips.

"This area is off limits," the second guard told her, "_And_, you're out after curfew."

Fallon frowned, glancing quickly at me before returning her gaze to the guards—they could have mistaken her eye movement for a fleeting look at her watch. "Technically, I'm out _before_ curfew's been lifted."

I flapped my wings, desperately trying to keep myself airborne while also not attracting the attention of either guard, especially that of the second seeing as I was hovering right next to his right hip.

"Doesn't matter," the first said, "Either way you are breaking the rules."

Sticking my head forward, I grabbed the set of keys with my beak, gently lifting them off the chain on the guard's belt.

"You're coming with us," the second guard said, stepping towards Fallon. I silently breathed a sigh of relief and pumped my wings harder—the keys were heavier than I anticipated—but, then again, I was only a three inch bird.

Fallon smiled, seeing I had the keys, and turned towards the exit. "You'll have to catch me first." She then darted outside and the guards ran after her. I sung to the floor under the weight of the keys.

From outside, I heard Fallon sing, "You'll never catch me!" Pounding footsteps then…silence.

I shifted into human form and picked up the set of keys, glad to have fingers and opposable thumbs again. The front door of the cottage creaked a bit and I looked up to see Jet sneaking inside. Under normal circumstances, I would have blushed and attempted to cover myself in his presence, but, since nothing about breaking out of a place that was more of a prison than a happy community could be considered normal, I tried not to care.

"This way," I said, slipping down the stairs, Jet following behind. At the bottom, I turned and walked to the small opening in my dad's cell door.

"Marina?" he asked, already standing at the door, "What are you doing here?"

I smiled at him. "We're getting out. And you're coming too."

"Marina, you shouldn't have worried about me," he said, "Just go. Go now before the guards return."

I raised my eyebrows at him, smiling wider. "Then what was the point of getting this key?" I raised it for him to see before inserting it into the hole next to the doorknob. A click later and the door swung open. My dad stepped out, smiling too now. "Besides, they shouldn't be back for awhile…hopefully."

"John?" my dad asked, noticing Jet for the first time, "What are you doing here?"

"Later," I said before Jet could speak, "Fallon bought us some time, but eventually the guards will be back. We don't want to be here when that happens."

"Hold on," my dad said, glancing over to another cell door, "There's someone else down here."

I walked over to the other door and peeked in the opening. Staring up at me from the stone floor was a lynx. "I'll get you out," I said to the cat. But, before I could turn to the keyhole, the lynx in the cell shifted to reveal Drew in its place.

"Don't," she snapped.

I frowned at her. "We're going to escape. I thought that's what you wanted?"

"Of course I do, but, like I told you before, _I don't need your help_," she snarled, "I've been on my own my whole life. I can get myself out of this hell hole."

I stared at her for a moment, completely shocked. Did she really distrust people that much that she won't even let me unlock her cell door for her?

She sat back down on the cold floor and looked up at me. "I thought you didn't have a lot of time."

Without another look back, I turned, shifting into the black cat again, and raced up the steps after Jet and my dad. Once outside, the three of us stuck to the shadows as much as possible. Because of my current favorable size and color, I was the one who peeked around each corner and gaze the "all clear." We made our way towards the South entrance, not coming across quite as many guards as I expected—hopefully that meant Fallon was proving to be more of a handle than her two guards anticipated and there wasn't someone else creating trouble at this time in the morning. We couldn't afford to have another plan stolen.

My dad and Jet crouched by the wall of the main training center while I snuck around to see if Brad had already executed his part of the plan.

I immediately noticed that the main gate was open. That meant they had heard Brad's distraction.

If there weren't still five guards standing by the gate I would have signaled to make a break for it then and there, but we couldn't risk being seen. We didn't want anyone coming after us before we had made it safely to Brad's car and were on our way home.

I watched as one guard cocked his head to the left: listening. He then beckoned for two guards to follow him outside and around the other side of the wall. I couldn't help but smile at how well things were working so far. We still had to escape.

Sleeking back to my dad and Jet, I shifted into human form once more. "Tell Brad that he needs to amp it up. There are still two guards at the gate."

Jet nodded.

Initially I had doubted Brad's idea for using walkie-talkies stashed in various trees of brush to draw the attention of the guards. But he had insisted that by strategically placing one every hundred feet or so, and turning each to a different channel, that they could give the illusion of someone walking around the edge of the wall. And, depending what the guards heard out of the walkie-talkies depended on quickly they reacted to the possible threat. Brad was supposed to simply talk like he was on an actual hunting trip, but if all the guards didn't respond after that, then he was supposed to actually set off a few gun shots. We were sure that the guards would go running if they heard the sound of guns.

I peeked around the corner and saw the two guards exchange nervous glances before one disappeared into the trees beyond the gate. Only one guard remained. I supposed we could manage to sneak by him, but it wasn't ideal.

But then the last guard did something none of us had expected—he pressed the button to close the gate. My eyes widened as the giant doors before slowly began to come together.

_No, no, no._

"We have to make a break for it now," I said, not bothering to keep my voice down. Without another moment's hesitation we rushed forward. There was still at least a fifteen foot gap between the doors…twelve…ten…seven…four…

"Stop!" the last guard shouted.

We ignored him and kept running. Three…we were going to make it.

"Stop, or I sound the alarm!"

I slowed and turned to see the guard still standing beside the controls for the gate, but this time, his hand was hovering over a different button—which, just so happened to be a big, red button—figures. In front of me the doors to the gate sealed shut.

My heart sank. We were so close.

"Hold your arms out and walk back over here," the guard said, rather smugly, "And no shifting."

Slowly, we obliged. In the light the guard was finally able to make out our faces. If he was surprised he didn't show it.

"Well, well, well," he said, glancing between each of us, "What do we have here? A criminal, a _savior_," the way he said "savior" made me want to throw up, "and a—"

_Thunk!_

The guard's head smashed into the controls—conveniently reopening the gate for us—and his body crumpled to the ground.

"Gloating is not very attractive you know…especially on you." Fallon ran her fingers over the tops of her knuckles as she smiled down at the unconscious guard.

"Fallon?" I asked incredulously. My body couldn't seem to express the level of surprise and gratefulness at seeing my friend standing before me. "But what happened to the guards chasing you?"

"Like I told you, I know how to make myself invisible," she said pulling a piece of cloth from behind her back, "I thought you might want this."

Taking the dress from her, I pulled it over my head. It did little to ease the cold but it was a nice cover. I grabbed her, pulling her into a hug and breaking out into a smile myself. "Thank you," I whispered in her ear and then let go, "for everything. I'm really going to miss you."

Fallon smiled again, showing her teeth. "Are you crazy?" she demanded. She gestured to the small backpack hanging off her shoulders. "I'm coming with you!"

I just continued smiling as we made a break for the gate and slipped into the partially snowy woods. We probably ran for about a mile, doing our best not to make a distinguishable path through the trees. We didn't suspect we were being followed, but we also didn't want to take the chance.

"Hold up," Jet said suddenly, tilting his head. We slowed to a stop, all quiet, listening for something other than the stirring of animals—well, normal animals.

Then we heard it.

It was soft, almost unnoticeable in the silent trees, but it was recognizable—the pounding of numerous paws on soil.

"They're coming," Fallon whispered—the fear in her voice uncharacteristic. It was only then that I realized she was just as desperate as I was to escape the tribe, if not more.

"This way," Jet said, cutting to the right. Then to Brad, he said, "We're heading west a bit. Meet us further down the road."

We ran faster now that we knew we were being pursued. But our speed didn't seem to matter. In human form we were slower than the guards, and it soon became clear that no matter how fast we ran, they would eventually catch us.

We slowed, ducking behind a set of three large pine trees, as the paws go louder in our ears like some sort of impending doom.

"We could hide," Fallon suggested, glancing around the area.

Jet and I both shook our heads.

"They would sniff us out," my dad said.

"Then what do we do?"

We all exchanged looks. I was at a loss—there was nothing we could do.

Looking around at each of us, my dad spoke carefully, "You three continue heading west. I'll go back east and lead them away."

"No!" I said immediately. He wasn't going to leave us. I wasn't going to lose my dad again.

My dad smiled sadly at me. "Marina, sweetie," he said softly, "It's the only chance you have. I told you you needed to escape. I'm grateful you got me out too, but all I ever wanted was for you to be safe."

"But—"

He kissed the top of my head and the words died in my throat. "Go home," he whispered, "Tell everyone I'm okay and that...I'll come when I can."

Tears lined the crevices of my eyes as he took me in his arms, hugging me tight. I nodded when he pulled away.

"Go," he said a bit more urgently.

Jet took the lead, weaving our way through the trees as my dad headed in the opposite direction. Part of me secretly hoped that my dad's idea didn't work—I didn't want to leave him behind—but I knew that he was right. I couldn't stay in the tribe, and, if they caught me now I would most likely never get the chance to leave again.

The sound of paws behind us grew distant the further and further we went. After about half an hour we slowed, no longer able to hear anyone following us. By now the sun had risen—no doubt people in the tribe would be beginning to wake up, if they hadn't already—and that meant we had less than an hour before they realized we (well, I) were gone and sent a search party after us. Ten to fifteen minutes later, Jet stopped completely, his head swiveling to survey the area.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Fallon asked, leaning against a nearby tree as if it was the only thing keeping her upright.

"Of course," said Jet, his eyes settling on slightly to his left as if he was mentally plotting the path ahead of him, "We have to head downhill more. Come on, it's not much further."

I instinctively sniffed the air but couldn't pick anything up. Had I been in wolf form I would have no doubt been able to pick up Brad's scent.

We continued walking. The air had begun to warm up, however slightly, thanks to the sun but the ground was still frozen and I couldn't feel my feet. It really wasn't long before I spotted a gap in the trees—a gap filled by something large and black—Brad's car.

We stepped out into the clearing, which, I quickly realized existed because someone had made a dirt road. But the road wasn't the first thing I noticed. No, _that_ was Brad.

He looked exactly as he had the day he "kidnapped" me from the adoption agency and taken me for a ride on his jet-ski. His arms were crossed, revealing the toned in his chest and forearms, and he was leaning against the hood of his Charger. His crystalline, blue eyes had honed in on me, staring at me so intently that I couldn't help but squirm on the inside.

Smiling sheepishly at him, I said, "Hey."

Brad didn't respond. I suddenly found myself enveloped in his arms.

"Are you okay?" he asked as I hugged him back, "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Pulling back, I shook my head. "No, I'm fine."

A noise to my left diverted my attention.

"We should get going," Jet said.

Brad drove and Jet got in on the passenger side while Fallon and I slid in the back. Once we were buckled, Fallon leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "I understand now," her eyes finding Brad up front, "About not being able to choose. _He_ _is hot_."

I bit my lip glancing between the two boys in the front. I knew I couldn't lead them both on for much longer—I had to choose soon. But I didn't want to worry about that now. In fact, I didn't want to worry about anything at all.

Turning my head to look behind me, I smiled. We did it. I was finally free of the tribe.

**So I promised a couple chapters back that I would announce which characters would be making appearances in this next group. I would like to thank **_**CelticH2O**_** for the submission of Kiara Benson and **_**paigerz54**_** for Kye Russel. I'm thinking both these characters will first appear in chapter 13 and then play bigger roles in chapters 15, 16, and 17. As before, I hope that I can accurately portray the characters you designed. If there is any aspect of the character you would really like me to include in the story, feel free to message me and I'll do my best to put it in.**

**Also, if anyone was wondering, this story is going to be much longer than the previous two. I already have more than thirty chapters planned out (including the ones posted), and there's still a bunch of things I want to make happen before I figure out the ending. At the moment, I'm thinking this story will be around forty-five chapters, maybe even fifty, so there's still a long way to go. **

**Thanks again for the submissions and I hope everyone will continue to stick it out with Marina! :)**


	12. Schematics

**All of my reviewers (and readers) are awesome. So thank you for being awesome! If you haven't reviewed, please do! I would love to know what you think. Here's the next chapter: I hope you like it :)**

What amazed me most was that Jet and Brad had survived the trip to the tribe without trying to kill each other. During the ride out of the mountains, I watched the two of them. At first they both seemed tense, their backs stiff against the seats, but then I noticed them relax once we drove out of the trees and made it to paved road. I would have thought they'd remain tense being in such close proximity to one another. Flashbacks to the fight between them last fall, where they both ended up a bloody mess, had me anticipating a flying fist every few minutes.

But one never came.

In fact, they almost seemed comfortable with each other. When Brad turned on the radio, Jet started tapping his fingers on his knee. And, when the song changed, Jet _politely_ asked Brad if he could change it. To which Brad _pleasantly_ responded, saying that he didn't like the current song either. It made me wonder what the trip there had been like, because, now that I was out of the confines of the tribe and had found out we were in Utah—somewhere in the mountains near Salt Lake City—I realized that that had to be a _very_ long drive.

Fallon didn't really talk. Her eyes were glued to the scenery passing us by. I couldn't imagine what it was like for her to see how the rest of the world lived. The only time her eyes left the window was when they found Brad's in the rearview mirror—but I was pretty sure Brad had no idea she was looking. If I didn't know any better I'd have thought that Fallon was developing a crush on Brad, either that, or she just really appreciated his good looks—which, of course, I couldn't exactly blame her for.

We drove for four hours in near silence. Fallon was the first to address everyone, which wasn't so surprising given how outspoken she could be. "So," she started, eyes moving from person to person, "Are we going to stop at some point? Because I don't know about the rest of you, but the human here would like some breakfast and possibly a toilet too."

In the front, Brad frowned, glancing back at Fallon in the mirror. "I'm human too, you know."

"Obviously, since the only thing you seem to be useful for is driving." Fallon scoffed, looking back out the window. Err, maybe her taking to Brad hadn't surpassed his appearance.

By now the road was flooded with other cars, most people on their way to work. Brad's hands tightened around the wheel, not caused by any of the other drivers, but, no doubt, by Fallon's comment.

"Why is she here again?" Brad asked, speaking through his teeth.

Neither Jet nor I answered him as Fallon huffed at the window.

"Umm, Brad?" I asked, "Maybe Fallon's right. We have a long drive ahead of us. We should stop while most people are on the road."

Brad's grip loosened at my words. "Yeah," he sighed, "Yeah, alright."

We got off the highway at the next exit, pulling into the parking lot of an IHOP. Getting out of the car, I was again met with a rush of cold air, chilling my bare feet once more. Glancing between the restaurant and my feet, I realized that having no shoes was going to be a problem. In fact, my dress probably wasn't going to acceptable either. Since Jet hadn't shifted at all when we escaped, he was still fully clothed—his attire was perfectly acceptable. Mine was not.

As if he read my mind, Jet said, "I have some extra clothes in the trunk, Marina." He moved around to the back of the car. "They'll be big on you. I didn't think to grab any of your own clothes before we left. But, the staff in there shouldn't refuse to seat you."

I nodded as he opened a duffel bag, handing me a blue flannel shirt, a pair of jeans and hiking boots. Holding the jeans up to my pale, and goose-bump ridden, legs, I said, "Uhh, I think I'll stick with the dress for bottoms." I gave him back the jeans and pulled the flannel shirt on over top of the dress Fallon had given me. I buttoned it up, covering the dirt and holes. Glancing down, I realized that the shirt was much too long—almost the length of the dress. I grabbed the front ends of the shirt and tied them together in a knot so it rested just below my belly button. I then pulled on the boots and tied them as tight as they would go. My feet would still move around in them but at least they wouldn't fall off my feet when I walked.

"Are you ready yet?" Fallon asked, staring at the IHOP like it was the entrance to heaven. She was definitely much more excited about actually going inside the restaurant and observing everyone than the promise of food and a bathroom that the building guaranteed.

"Yeah."

She turned, looking me up and down. "You look ridiculous," she commented.

I glared at her. "You would look ridiculous too if you were wearing a guy's shirt and boots that are probably four sizes too big."

She smiled but didn't say anything, leading the way. Brad, Jet and I followed her inside, grateful to once again get out of the cold.

Smiling widely at us, while also judging my attire, the hostess asked, "How many?"

"How many what?" Fallon asked, giving the woman a funny look.

I put a hand over my mouth, stifling a giggle, while a smile tugged at Jet's lips. Brad stepped forward and placed a hand on Fallon's shoulder pulling her back a bit. She shot him a slightly baffled but clearly annoyed look that seemed to demand what she had done wrong.

"Four," Brad told the hostess firmly. She smiled at him and picked up four menus.

"This way." She led us around the other side of the glass to the dining room. She gestured to a table and said, "Enjoy your meal." Her eyes lingered on Brad, and then on Jet, adding, "If you need anything, feel free to call me—I mean call me over to your table." She quickly left then, her cheeks furiously blushing red. It seemed that she—like the rest of the world—found both Jet and Brad extremely good looking.

I sat down and Fallon took one of the seats next to me. I noticed Brad and Jet exchange a look, before Jet jerked his head towards the remaining seat next to me and Brad sat down, Jet settling in the seat across from me. Doing my best to ignore the secret exchange, I passed Fallon a menu and told her, "You pick something from here that you want." She nodded, taking the menu from me and opening it.

A waiter soon came to take our drink order.

It was weird. We were all acting like everything was perfectly normal—well, except for Fallon since she'd never been to a restaurant before. But, we were acting like we hadn't just run from a power-hungry dragon shapeshifter and his psycho wife, like we hadn't just broken out of what could possibly be the most cleverly disguised prison in existence. We were acting as if we weren't two shapeshifters (one with a destiny she still can't fathom), a shapeshifter hunter who, for reasons still unknown, can see the auras of supernaturals, and a girl who is surprisingly human despite coming from a long line of shapeshifters and was labeled an outcast by her own friends and family. I hadn't felt normal in so long that, sitting at that table then and acting like I was, felt…weird.

Once the waiter returned with our drinks and wrote down what we wanted to eat, Brad leaned forward and said, "So, where to?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?" I asked, taking a sip of my juice, "Home, of course. Where else would we go?"

Brad threw his gaze to Jet, who laid his elbows against the edge of the table, looking across it to me.

I was once again struck by how well Brad and Jet seemed to get along, even know each other. Had I not had to choose one to love as more than a friend, I would have been happy to see their continued cooperation, but, at that moment, it didn't bring me any comfort for I knew that once I chose, that…friendship would be cut off.

"I found the note in your room," Jet said, "The one with my mother's old address on it and the information about the restraining order on the guy Nathan Richter?"

Oh, of course. I had almost forgotten about how I had Cole get me into the police records. With everything that had happened, what with Valerie running away, the chief arriving in California, the prophecy, and the battle that ensued between shapeshifters and hunters, I had completely forgotten about the information I had found on Jet's real mother, Deirdre. I nodded to Jet, telling him that I remembered.

"The restraining order on him was filed only a couple months before I was born," he said, "and we both know that the adoption agency said I was left on the doorstep by a German Sheppard."

"Yeah?" I asked, "How are they relevant?"

"I think that this Nathan Richter guy might have been a hunter," Jet explained.

"A hunter?" I asked, glancing over to Brad, "As in a shapeshifter hunter?"

Jet nodded. "If my mom knew she was being hunted, then wouldn't it be easier—safer—for her to leave me at an adoption agency and draw the hunter after her? Wouldn't that explain why she was in her animal form when she left me? So that she could make a quick getaway?"

I thought about it. There were parts of his theory that made sense, but it was all speculation. "But then why wouldn't she come back for you once she escaped the hunter? How do you even know this Nathan Richter guy was a hunter?"

Brad spoke up. "We don't," he said, "But it's entirely possible that he was. Usually, when a hunter pursues a target alone, he uses an alias."

Jet's voice was softer when he spoke again. "And, she couldn't have come back for me…if she was caught."

Caught? Oh god, I hadn't even considered that.

"There is a facility in Arizona, north of Flagstaff," Brad said, "where hunters sometimes take shapeshifters."

"Like a prison?" I asked.

Brad was hesitant to answer. He grimaced and I knew his answer was going to be less than truthful. "Sort…of," he admitted finally, then continued, "It's not often that a hunter is asked to take a shapeshifter there—although there have been more requests to capture rather than kill recently—but it's highly likely that if this guy hunted alone then he would have taken Jet's mother to this facility."

"If it's alright," Jet said, "I would like to go there, cause—I know it's a long shot—but there's a possibility that she might still be there."

Both Jet and Brad were looking at me as if the decision to go rested entirely on my shoulders. Why was it up to me? I looked sideways at Fallon to see what she thought.

She shrugged. "I'm up for another rescue mission."

I turned back to Jet and smiled. I knew how much this meant to him. "Yeah, okay. If there's a chance then we have to try, right?"

For the rest of breakfast, Brad told us as much as he could about this "facility" that held shapeshifters—well, as much as he could without drawing suspicion or strange looks from nearby tables. I was pretty sure that the woman sitting at the table next to us thought we were a bunch of sadists.

We soon left to get back on the road, now only having a five hour drive until we reached our destination. Brad promised to show us blueprints of the facility when we stopped for the night. In the meantime, we needed to think of a way to get into a place that imprisoned, and most likely tortured, shapeshifters without revealing ourselves to be shapeshifters, and then possibly even break one shapeshifter out of the facility. I didn't necessarily like being a glass half empty type of girl but, the odds of getting in, let alone making it out, weren't exactly in our favor.

*/*/*

Hours later we pulled into the parking lot of a motel. It didn't look like the nicest place to stay but we needed someplace where we wouldn't be noticed, or, at least, where nobody would ask questions.

Once inside the small room, Brad set a large black bag on the table, pulling the zipper to reveal its contents. There were many things that caught my eye: the two rifles, shotgun, crossbow, and grenade, just to name a few. But Brad ignored all the weapons, pulling from an inside pocket, a severely creased piece of paper. He unfolded it and smoothed it over the table.

"This is the entrance here," he said, pointing to a spot on the diagram.

"What are these over here?" Jet asked, his finger on a row of small, square-shaped rooms, "They look like—"

"They are," Brad said, cutting Jet off, "Those are cells for the prisoners."

"Do we know how to get inside them?" Jet's eyes scanned the rest of the diagram.

"Umm, how about knowing how we get in the building?" Fallon snapped, "Knowing how to get in a cell won't do us any good if we can't get in the prison in the first place."

"She's right," Brad said, sighing, "We need to figure out how to get all of us inside without raising an alarm. This place is heavily guarded, not to mention is equipped with a security system that could rival the White House."

"And we have to get in without the expert shapeshifter hunters realizing you and Marina are shapeshifters," Fallon said.

"That too," said Brad.

I looked up from the blueprints, furrowing my eyebrows as I glanced back and forth between Brad and Jet. "Unless…" I started; maybe there _was_ a way to get in.

"Unless what?" Jet asked.

I smiled at my friends. "Unless we told them we were shapeshifters."

"Marina, you're crazy. You know it would be disastrous if they found out about you guys," Brad said.

"Or maybe," I said, still smirking, "it can work to our advantage."

"How so?"

I laid my hands on the table. "Okay, here's what I'm thinking. What if Brad and Fallon go in pretending to bring Jet in as a prisoner?" I looked to Jet. "You would be in your wolf form, and Brad, you would convince them that Jet is a shapeshifter so they'll take him prisoner. You and Fallon will mention how there was a second shapeshifter that got away, but you intend to go back after it. Then you two leave. And while in there, Jet, you see if you can find your mother. Then Brad and Fallon will come back a couple hours later, pretending to bring me in as the second shapeshifter, and that is when we will all escape." Finishing my long-winded speech, I took a deep breath in then let it out.

All three of my friends were staring at me, considering my plan. I stared back—I didn't see any of them coming up with a brilliant idea.

Fallon was the first to speak. "It's a good plan," she said.

"And it could work," said Brad, nodding.

I looked expectantly at Jet. I wanted his approval before we went through with my plan. He would be the one subject to the hunters' whims for a few hours. If he wasn't comfortable with that then we would come up with a different plan. I wasn't sure if I would be okay with it.

Jet moved a hand up to rub the back of his neck and then placed it on the table, straightening his arm as much as he could. "Let's do this."

We spent the rest of the night planning details. Jet would have exactly three hours in the facility before Brad, Fallon, and I would be back to get him (and possibly his mother) out. We debated on ways to make sure Jet knew how much time he had. Strapping a watch to his leg was not only out of the question but just plain stupid. Fallon suggested we use the comms unit again but Brad said the guards would sweep Jet with metal detectors and find it. In the end, we decided that Jet would simply have to estimate the time. I didn't like it, sending Jet in blind, but it was the only way our plan was going to work.

Once we had our plan set, and, had gone over it at least ten times, Fallon said she wanted to take a shower before bed. It took only about a minute of being alone with Jet and Brad for the unease to settle in the pit of my stomach, so, leaving them studying the blue prints of the facility, I told them I was heading to the motel lobby to make a phone call and slipped out of the room. For once I was actually grateful my phone had been confiscated—it gave me an excuse to escape the increasing tension in the room.

There was a payphone outside the entrance to the motel. I inserted the few coins I picked up off the dresser in our room and dialed my home phone number. I hadn't talked to my mom in weeks and she was no doubt out of her mind with worry. Briefly I wondered if she had called the police when she couldn't find me at the airport, or if Jet had told her his suspicions about where I was and his plans to find me. I hoped he had. I didn't like to think about what she had been going through while I was trapped in the tribe.

She picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Mom?" I whispered tentatively.

"Marina?" she exclaimed on the other end, "Oh Marina! Thank god! Are you alright? Where are you? John said something about the tribe but I wasn't sure. I was so worried. Are you okay?"

I smiled, clutching the receiver so hard my knuckles turned white. "Yeah, I'm okay," I told her, "I'm with Jet now."

"Where are you?" she asked again, "Where were you? You're coming home right?"

I assured her that I was coming home, but left out the part regarding exactly when. I had a feeling she wouldn't like the idea of breaking into a specially designed shapeshifter prison. Instead I told her about the tribe, Fallon, Dad, and finally how I'd discovered I could shift into any animal. As with Jet, I was slightly worried about how she would react to the last bit of information, but she took it well.

"I always knew you were special, honey," she said, "It's just coming out for the world to see."

That's what I was afraid of. I still hadn't shown Jet or Brad the prophecy, even though one of the few parts I understood involved Brad. Something else I knew was that it talked of a war—a war I was supposedly going to be in the center of. Up until I successfully turned into an animal other than a wolf or dolphin, there was a small part of me that hoped the prophecy wouldn't come true. But I couldn't deny it anymore.

I said goodbye to my mom, telling her I would see her soon and that I would call again when I could. Fallon was still in the bathroom when I got back, but I didn't mind. I hadn't planned on showering before bed anyway.

It was unfortunate that we only had enough cash to get one room. Both Brad and Jet insisted we save our money as much as possible since we didn't know how long we were going to be on the road, and I didn't argue with them—given the fact that neither Fallon nor I had managed to bring any money with us. I say unfortunate because of the awkward conversation slash confrontation that ensued once we agreed it was time for us to get some sleep.

Had I been able to think straight, I would have slapped both Jet and Brad when they started arguing, but I was too stunned to initiate a reaction past the look on my face.

I had already settled in on one side of the bed next to the window, when Jet pulled back the sheets on the other side. The argument was probably partially my fault—I should have said something to Jet, but I didn't. Truthfully, I didn't think anything of it. Jet and I had shared a bed tons of times before—it wasn't a big deal—but Brad didn't see it that way.

"What are you doing?" he asked, turning to find Jet sitting in bed next to me.

"What do you mean?" Jet asked, "I'm going to sleep."

Brad clenched and unclenched his right fist. "With Marina?"

My eyes found the closed bathroom door. I desperately hoped Fallon would walk back out soon.

"It's not like we haven't slept together before," Jet said casually.

All color drained from Brad's face.

That was when I jumped in. "He means like slept-slept, not…you know—" I stuttered, reddening because I had basically just admitted that I was still a virgin to the two guys I loved.

"Then maybe I should sleep with Marina this time," said Brad, glaring at Jet.

Jet glared right back. "I don't think so," he said, "you'd take advantage of that."

Fallon, where were you?

"And you won't?"

"No. Marina and I slept in the same bed even before we were a couple," Jet explained.

"And technically Marina and I are just friends now too. So it shouldn't matter if we sleep in the same bed tonight," Brad argued.

That was when Jet stood up, getting level with Brad. Images of the two of them rolling around on the asphalt, trying to punch the living daylights out of each other, flashed through my mind.

"_I'm_ sleeping with Marina."

"No. _I_ _am_."

Both boys looked like they were about to start throwing fists. So much for getting along.

It was at that moment that Fallon emerged from the bathroom. "Actually, _I'll_ be sleeping with Marina," she said, apparently having heard the whole conversation, "So you two are going to have to share that bed." She smiled as she walked over and slid under the covers next to me. "Sleep tight. Oh, and do try not to kill each other during the night."

Clearly disgruntled, but not daring to argue further, Jet and Brad settled down in the other bed. Fallon shut off the light and I rolled over, closing my eyes.

It took me awhile to fall asleep. There was one thing that kept racking my brain. We weren't worried so much about getting in the facility tomorrow—I was convinced that part of the plan would go smoothly—it was getting out that was going to be the problem.


	13. Breaking In

**Thank you for all the reviews and great comments! If you haven't reviewed, please do! It would mean so much to me.**

**Okay, so this chapter took me longer than I expected. I honestly had been looking forward to writing this chapter for months, but when I finally sat down to write it, I drew a blank. So, I hope everything makes sense and you guys all love it!**

Things are different when you're alone. Things that you were so sure of when there were people with you become so unsure when you're alone. Like a plan for example. Something you might have thought was a good idea when your friends were there changes as soon as you're alone. It's no longer a good idea, in fact, you slowly see how it is quite possibly the worst idea you've ever thought of. It changes from a good idea to a poor idea to a bad idea to a horrible idea until you find yourself wondering why you even voiced the idea in the first place. Without your friends there to wipe away your doubts—to convince you the plan will work—you quickly descend into hysterics.

Brad and Fallon left for the facility with Jet half an hour. I was already freaking out.

Half an hour and I was already convinced they were all going to die. The "what if" questions popping in my head grew more and more ridiculous as the minutes ticked by.

What if the hunters didn't believe Brad? What if they were taken? What if they did take Jet and then decided to torture him? What if they killed him? What if they took Brad because he can see auras? What if they tortured Fallon because of association? What if they had snipers on the roof to shoot them as soon as they spotted them?

My feet resorted to their usual nervous habit—pacing around the room—while I waited, on the verge of hyperventilating. I was sure that had I had access to a car I would have gone after them. But, I didn't, and, the last little bit of reason inside me was thankful for that. Even though my brain couldn't seem to fathom it, I had to believe things would be okay. Brad and Fallon would be back soon and then the three of us would return for Jet.

Still, I couldn't help but play through the worst possible scenarios. And, every single one of them ended with someone dead. The one that disturbed me the most was Jet realizing he was going to die alone in one of those small cells I'd seen on Brad's blueprints. That scenario actually brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't just that he was dying—it was that he had to do so cold and alone. I wanted to be by his side, even if it meant I would be dying too.

It took me a full twenty minutes to get a hold of myself—most of the tear-wiping and nose-blowing occurring in the thirty seconds between hearing Brad's Charger pull up and when Brad and Fallon walked through the door.

"He's in," Brad said immediately.

Part of me sighed in relief but it wasn't a large enough part for my body to express that relief. I remained tense, biting my bottom lip and continuing to pace back and forth across the room.

And so the waiting began. Jet had been in the facility for less than an hour. We were supposed to give him three hours time to find his mother before we made our move to get him out.

There was no way I was going to last three hours.

Fallon seemed to sense this because she pulled me over to the table, sat me down, and began placing playing cards in front of me.

"Wha-what are you doing?" I asked.

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Trying to distract you."

I was about to tell her not to waste her time but decided against it—all we had was time to waste. Fallon and I played cards for forty-five minutes while Brad sat on a bed, cleaning one of his guns.

At first, knowing that Brad would be armed when we returned comforted me, until I remembered that all the hunters in the facility would probably be armed as well. If it came to a gun fight we would be dead in seconds. Fallon had flat out refused to carry a gun, insisting she'd be fine without one. I had no idea why. If I were her I'd have taken it gladly, regardless of whether or not I knew how to fire it.

Every so often Brad would glance up from his gun at me. Incidentally that happened every time my thoughts wandered back to Jet being locked in a cell. Maybe it was just me, but Brad's expression always seemed to beg the question of whether I'd be just as worried if it were him inside the facility. I found myself wondering the same thing.

Time dragged on. I felt like I was driving on a single lane road behind the slowest driver in the world with nothing but a rocky ledge on either side of me. Only now, my frustration was directed at time rather than a car in front of me. I was way past impatient.

Despite my inability to wait, time did pass. And later rather than sooner, I did find myself in the back of Brad's Charger, a muzzle over my snout and my paws tied together. I tried to sneak peeks of the facility as we approached it. The shapeshifter prison looked simply like a storage warehouse, and I wondered what the hunters offered any passersby as a cover for what they really did inside. As we drew closer I laid back down on the seat—I couldn't risk being noticed by any of the guards. I was supposed to pretending to be unconscious. Brad was going to tell the guards that he'd given me an anesthesia to knock me out, but it wouldn't matter what he said if one of the guards saw me completely conscious through the window. Our escape plan wasn't a great one, but it depended on maintaining the element of surprise.

The car came to a stop and I felt my heart pound against my ribs, my fear beginning to take over. Although I could no longer see the place, every nerve in my body was telling to get the hell out of there. I had a really bad feeling about going inside. Had Jet been this scared? I hoped not. The only thing keeping me from shifting back into human form and telling Brad to turn the car around was the fact that Jet was locked inside. I knew nothing would keep me from protecting Jet—I had willingly revealed myself as a shapeshifter to Brad last fall just to keep him from shooting Jet—but that didn't mean I wasn't still afraid. I mean, while Brad hadn't hurt me, I had been shot that day, coincidently by his mother.

"You ready?" Brad asked, his eyes shifting back at me.

I closed my eyes, desperately trying to slow my rapidly beating heart. I gave him a short growl in response, which I'm sure he took to mean "let's get this over with." I just hoped that Jet had been able to find something on his mother in the limited time we gave him. What would we do if he hadn't been able to discover anything? Would we risk sneaking back in? I didn't want to go in now, let alone come back once we got out.

The car doors on either side opened, both Brad and Fallon hopping out. I stayed as still as possible and tried to keep my breathing even.

"What are you doing back here?" a voice barked, one I didn't recognize, assumedly a guard.

I could practically hear Fallon's eye roll. "We said we'd be back if we caught the other one," she said, "Well, we caught her."

"That was fast," came another voice I didn't recognize. Guard number two.

"We're _that_ good," Fallon said confidently.

There was a pause where the guards seemed to be thinking over Fallon's words. What would we do if they refused to let us in?

"Look," Brad said, speaking up, "We've got another changing monster knocked out back here. Your boss seemed pretty interested in the last one we brought in. But if you two think he won't want a second, that's fine. We'll just kill her." There was a distinctive click as Brad loaded his gun. I was sure he was pointing it at my head. The image Brad holding a different gun to my head sprung to the front of my mind. If he wanted to, Brad could look really intimidating.

"Stop!" the first guard shouted. After a few seconds of silence, where I imagined Brad lowering his gun, the guard spoke again. "Follow me," he said, "and bring the animal."

The door closest to my head opened. I felt hands gingerly slide under my neck to my chest and around my backside, tucking my tail down.

"I promise I won't let anything happen to you in there," Brad whispered so that only I could hear. He then lifted me up off the soft leather. The light behind my eyelids increased as he pulled me out into the sun. I listened as his footsteps matched that of someone in front of him—the guard—and as another fell into step behind him—Fallon. I desperately hoped that the other guard would remain outside. It would be easy to take down one, and I was sure we could handle two if necessary, but it would also take more time to do so. And more time meant increased possibility of being heard. The loss of sunlight behind my closed eyes indicated that we had stepped inside, the door locking after Fallon.

We were in. I just hoped we could get out.

Brad seemed to sense my anxiety because his grip around my limp body tightened, pressing me closer to his chest. The warmth from his body against mine felt nice compared to the chilled temperature of the building. We walked for a minute before we came to a stop and there was a soft beep noise and a click. I knew I shouldn't of but I risked a peek. We were walking through a door I assumed had been closed. I noticed the guard pocketing a card—he must have used it to open the door.

I closed my eyes again as we entered a new hallway. Only it wasn't just the three of us anymore. My ears picked up on multiple people breathing. Crap. There was a lot. I couldn't tell how many, but there had to be at least five. We couldn't handle six guards on our own.

"Help me!" came a shrill, hysterical voice that definitely didn't belong to the guard. I almost opened my eyes to see who it was but then remembered I had to remain "unconscious," especially if there were more guards around.

"Please!" the voice came again. It belonged to a girl. My heart broke for her—she sounded young—and she was probably scared to death. Who knows what the hunters had done to her. "I don't belong in here! I'm human! I am!" she screamed, "Look at me! Please!" The girl was gasping for breath now. "Get me out! They're going to kill me!"

Lying against his chest, I felt Brad flinch. Seeing the girl, let alone hearing her, had to be hard for him. I was sure someone in his family or group of hunters had sent captured shapeshifters here before. My breath caught in my throat when I realized it was possible that _Brad_ had sent someone here. I wanted to comfort him, to ease his guilt. He couldn't blame himself for what happened to the shapeshifter imprisoned in this facility.

The girl's scream died down after we passed her. We came to a stop again and I waited for the guard to swipe his guard, assuming we'd come to another door, but the beep never came. Instead, Brad quietly crouched down, setting me on the floor. I opened my eyes, confused—this wasn't supposed to happen, I was supposed to attack—but just in time to see Brad hit the guard in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. I scrambled to my feet, glancing around. There was no one else in the hallway with us.

"Why did you do that?" Fallon demanded, stepping over the guard's skewed legs and plucking his keycard from the pocket I had seen him place it in at the last door.

"We can't leave them all here," Brad said, gesturing to a row of barred doors.

I stared down the hallway at the six doors. My ears had picked up on the breathing of six prisoners, not guards.

"This is supposed be a rescue not a riot," Fallon said.

I shifted back into human form, looking through the bars on the window of the first door. "He's right," I said, softly, staring at the cell's inhabitant. The girl was sitting on the floor with her back to me. She had long, light brown hair and, while I couldn't see her face, I would have guessed her to be only a year or two older than me. "We can't leave them here."

Behind me, Fallon pursed her lips as Brad took the guard's keycard from her. However, I was still studying the girl in the cell. She had positioned herself so she was sitting in the only patch of sunlight in the small room. She turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were a startling bright green.

I don't know what made me do it, but I found myself searching the girl for an aura. It wasn't that I didn't expect to find one, in fact, I was sure I would. My eyes widened when I did.

"Brad," I whispered, not moving my gaze from the girl.

"What is it?"

"Come here," I said, reaching a hand up to the bars on the girl's door, "Look."

Brad raised his eyebrows but walked over to stand beside me. He followed my gaze to the girl, his eyes narrowing as he watched her. Less than a minute later, I heard his breath hitch. "Her aura," he whispered and I nodded.

"It's green," we said together. For once, Fallon was silent behind us.

"What is she?" Brad asked, but I couldn't answer him. I didn't know.

"She's not a shapeshifter," I said, turning away from the door.

Fallon looked like she wanted to ask something but was afraid of the answer she'd get. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

Brad didn't speak. He ran down the hallway, stopping at each door to stare at the cell's occupants. When he reached the last door, cries erupted once more from the girl who had begged for help. "We'll get you out," Brad said soothingly to her, "I promise. Just hold on a bit longer." Then he turned to Fallon and I, and, pointing to each door one by one, he said, "Green, silver, pink, rainbow, brown, rainbow."

Not just green, but silver, pink and brown too? How many different supernaturals were being kept in this place? "I—I thought this was a prison for shapeshifters," I said slowly.

Brad ran a hand down the side of his face, worry plastered on it as his gaze flickered between the six doors. "Me too."

Fallon's eyes narrowed. "Shapeshifter hunters are only supposed to hunt shapeshifters. So how is it that these—" her voice trailed off as she failed to come up with a proper term to describe the other supernaturals, "—guys got here?"

"I don't know," Brad said, his frustration echoed in his clipped tone, "Hunters don't even know other magical creatures exist."

Fallon scoffed. "Oh, I think they know."

I shot her a glare. We didn't need to argue right now. We needed to find Jet, help all the prisoners escape and then get out ourselves. "Do you think that card will open the cells?"

Brad looked down at the key Fallon had taken off the guard then back at the cells. "No," he said, "They have different keys for guards stationed inside and out. We need to find a guard in here."

I nodded, knowing it wouldn't be that easy.

"Come on," Brad said, striding back up to the door the guard was hunched against, "We need to keep moving." He swiped the key and the door unlocked. The next hallway was much longer and wider, and there weren't any cell doors, only normal doors with slots for papers next to each one. It reminded me of the doctor's office and just that thought sent a wave of chills down my back. I'm not sure whether it was lucky or not, but we ran right into another guard as soon as we stepped out into the hallway.

"Hey!" the man exclaimed, but before he could get another word out, Fallon attacked. It may sound ridiculous but it is really the only way I could have described what she did. Her movements were so fast I had trouble followed them and the next minute, the guard was lying on his back on the floor, his head lolled to one side.

I was stunned. Even Brad seemed impressed. "Where did you learn to do that?" I asked as she reached down, taking the keycard out of the guard's pocket.

She shrugged. "When I realized I couldn't shift, I figured I had to find another way to protect myself."

I couldn't help but smile. So that was why she didn't want a gun. "You. Are. Awesome."

She smirked at me. "Yeah, I know."

Ignoring us, Brad said, "You two go back through there and find John. There was another door to more cells by the others."

"Where are you going?" Fallon asked.

"I want to find out what's really going on," Brad answered, his eyebrows furrowing, "There aren't supposed to be other supernaturals in here."

I nodded and turned to follow Fallon back the way we came as Brad headed in the opposite direction. Coming to a halt just before the door, I spun back around. "Brad! Wait!" He stopped and I rushed back over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Be careful," I whispered in his ear.

Parting, his lips turned up in a half smile. "I will." Then he disappeared.

"Come on!" Fallon yelled, exasperated, "Who knows how much time we have before they realize we're here?"

We ran back into the hallway with the six cell doors, Fallon sliding the new keycard in each lock. The doors swung open and confused heads began appearing in the hallway.

The girl with the green aura rushed into the arms of a boy with a silver aura. They didn't seem to care that they were free, only that they were together. The boy was Asian, although what specifically I didn't know. I was never really good at distinguishing ethnicities. And, despite not looking for his aura, he seemed to have a silvery tint to his skin. I wished I knew what kind of supernaturals they were.

"The exit's through there," I told the prisoners, pointing to the door we'd come through with the guard earlier—the guard who was still sacked out on the floor. The girl who had been in hysterics before immediately shifted into a black panther and dashed through the door ahead of me.

Fallon and I headed through another door to find a hallway lined with more cells. Not bothering to ask who—or rather what—was in each cell, she ran the card through the lock and each door swung open. "You're all free," she announced, "No need to thank us."

I glanced at each open door, hoping to see Jet's head poking out of one but he wasn't there. I was beginning to get nervous. What if we couldn't find him?

"Marina," said Fallon, "Over here."

I ran over to where she was standing, beside what looked like a steel door. Through the glass of the window, I saw a dark shape lying in the middle of the square room. "Jet!" I exclaimed but he didn't respond.

Fallon ran the keycard through the slot but nothing happened.

"Try again," I said, desperately pounding on the glass, but Jet still didn't stir.

"Nothing," Fallon said, staring through the glass at Jet, "Marina, I think he's unconscious."

I snatched the key from her hands. "We have to get him out of there." I ran it through the lock multiple times but the small light above it kept blinking red.

Fallon gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "It won't work," she said, "We have to find another way."

"How?"

She frowned, walking down to the end of the hallway. "There are more doors like Jet's through here," she said, motioning through another door.

"Do you think there's another kind of key for these doors?" I asked.

"Probably, but we don't have time to figure out which guard would have it."

She was right. We didn't have a lot of time. "What about a universal key? Or a switch?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like a button or something that would open all the doors," I quickly explained, "You know, in case they needed to evacuate the place."

Fallon considered this. "If they had such a thing it would probably be heavily guarded…or hidden." She frowned and then slowly a smile crept onto her face. Looking up at me, she said, "I think I know where it is. Come on."

We ran through door after door, turning left then right then left again until I was thoroughly lost. As we took down our third guard, I gasped, "Fallon, do you know where you're going?"

She nodded. "According to the blue prints it should be right around here."

We turned another corner, and there, at the very end of the hallway was a single door. It looked like a normal door, like one to an office or something. However, there were two guards stationed outside it—guards that rushed us as soon as they spotted us. I shifted into a lion, taking down one guard while Fallon handled the other.

A shout of pain erupted from the other side of the door and Fallon and I exchanged looks then burst through the door. I most certainly did not to expect to find what I did.

The room on the other side of the door was a decent size for an office. It even looked like an office—it had a large desk and cushioned chair behind it as well as several file cabinets lining the wall. However, none of this surprised me. What surprised me was the chair in front of the large desk. The chair had multiple wires attached to it, and in it sat a boy with unkempt dirty-blonde hair. Sweat was steadily trickling down his face, and despite clearly being in pain, he looked up at me and smiled.

"Tommy?!"

He chuckled. "Hey, Marina."

I rushed forward to undo the ropes holding him in the chair.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came a harsh voice from the shadows to my right.

A man I hadn't noticed when I first barged in the room, stood in the corner, a set of controls in his hand—controls that seemed to be attached to the wires hanging from Tommy's chair. Whoever this man was he had been using electrocution to torture my friend. But Tommy was a sorcerer, why would shapeshifter hunters want him? I thought back to the numerous different supernaturals Fallon and I had set free. Exactly what were the hunters doing in this facility?

Tommy's torturer reached his other hand up to what looked like a fire alarm stationed on the wall next to him. I had a bad feeling it wasn't a fire alarm though. Smiling, the man pulled the lever on the wall down. And that was when an alarm started blaring.

I think it was safe to say they knew we're here.


	14. Lockdown

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You never fail to make my day! If you weren't for you guys I'm not sure I would have continued this trilogy. Marina's story has truly grown bigger than I could have ever imagined, and it is all thanks to you my faithful fans, readers, and reviewers! So, thank you again!**

**I have to admit that this chapter is slightly shorter than the others, and that is because it is kind of more of a filler chapter. But, just because it is a filler chapter doesn't mean there isn't vital information hidden inside *wink wink*. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)**

"You're trapped now," the man said, "All the doors to the outside are secure. There's no way out."

Fallon stalked up to the man and promptly punched him in the face, knocking him out. Man, she really had a knack for that. "Well, sorry if I still feel like trying," she spat.

Kneeling down next to Tommy, I asked, "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "He didn't get very far before you stormed in."

I started to undo his restraints while Tommy studied Fallon—who happened to still be standing over the man I would have bet was in charge of the facility looking very smug. She began moving around the room, opening all the drawers in the desk and filing cabinets.

"Who is she?" Tommy whispered. Well, it wasn't really a whisper, more like his normal volume, but with the alarm still sounding in the background he could have breathed the words.

"My friend," I told him, "I'll explain later. Once we get out of here." The final knot of his ties came undone and, swinging his arm over my shoulders, I pulled him up out of the chair and towards where Fallon stood. "Tommy, Fallon. Fallon, Tommy."

"Nice to meet you," Tommy said, smiling at her.

Fallon was clearly taken aback by Tommy's good manners, but then, slowly, a smile crept onto her own face. I wasn't exactly surprised by this—everyone liked Tommy—it just goes to show that Tommy's charm was stronger that Fallon's lack of tact. "Uh, you too," she mumbled.

I glanced at Tommy who seemed to slowly regaining his strength—he was leaning on me less and less with every passing second. "Tommy," I said, "What are you doing here? Why did they take you?"

But before Tommy could respond, Fallon interrupted. "I think we should walk and talk," she said, motioning towards the door, "It's not here and seeing as all the guards know there are intruders—not to mention we still have to find a way to get Jet out of that cell—we better keep moving."

Tommy let go of me, only slightly leaning on the desk for support. "John's here too?" he asked, "Wait—what's he doing in a cell?"

Fallon shrugged. "We put him there."

Tommy's head snapped in my direction, his eyes wide, disbelieving. He was definitely asking whether Fallon was lying—and probably hoping she was.

I quickly launched into the story of how Jet discovered there was a possibility his mother was being kept here and the plan we executed to get him in here. "But now we can't get him out because they put him in a special cell and gave him some drug that knocked him out."

"And you're looking for something to get him out of this special cell?"

I nodded.

Tommy hobbled over to his unconscious torturer, rifling though the man's pockets until he pulled out a small silver key. Holding it up to show Fallon and I, he said, "This key opens a safe in the warden's office, and I bet there's something in there that can open all the cell doors."

I smiled. "Tommy, you're a genius."

"Eh, that's what happens when you're life's ambition is to become a human library," he laughed.

But Fallon only narrowed her eyes at him. "Isn't _this_ the warden's office?"

Tommy shook his head. "This is their decoy office in case the local law enforcement stop by," he explained, "I bet the only things you found in those drawers was information on storage shipments, right?"

Fallon didn't answer, but she didn't have to. With her, no response usually meant yes. She didn't like being bested.

"So where is his real office?" I asked, looking down at the man that ran this supernatural prison.

"I passed it as they brought me down here," he said, "Come on, this way."

We—Fallon rather grudgingly—followed Tommy back out of the office and down the long hallway. The guards we had taken out before had mysteriously disappeared. This did not comfort me, in fact, with the alarm still blaring through the building, it made me even more uneasy. They had probably run off to get backup or engage an extra security measure. The sooner we found Brad again and a way to open Jet's cell, the better.

When we rounded the corner our eyes met what I would have previously considered to be an impossible sight. Many of the prisoners Fallon and I had set free did not escape when we told them to. Instead, four of them were freely battling a group of guards in the narrow hallway.

The girl with the light brown hair and green aura was calmly kneeling on the tile floor, her hands spread out in front of her. The tiles separated as cracks began to appear in the earth below, causing the guards in front of her to stumble and fall. I still didn't know what kind of supernatural she was but whatever she was it was obvious had the power to move solid rock, even cause earthquakes. That was one hell of a power.

A spark of silver light caught my eye, snatching my attention away from the girl with the green aura. The guy with the silver aura, who I had seen embrace the earthquake girl, shot through the air towards the few guards who had managed to keep their feet from sliding out from under them. A pair of glistening, silver wings—a color that matched the aura surrounding his body—had sprouted from his back, allowing him to soar above earthquake girl and attack the guards.

A horse shapeshifter kicked a guard squarely in the chest while someone with a pink aura moved so fast through the guards, tripping them, that I couldn't actually see the person, only the blur of their aura.

It was truly an amazing sight—four different supernaturals working together to take down a common enemy. Of course I still wished I knew what the green, silver and pink auras meant. It occurred to me to ask Tommy what they were—being a "human library" he probably knew—he had discovered that a rainbow aura was a shapeshifter and a turquoise one was a mermaid last year. However, watching the fight unfold before me I knew now wasn't exactly the best time to ask him.

"Let me guess," Fallon remarked, wrinkling her nose at the fight before her, "we have to get through there."

"Stay behind me," Tommy ordered. He took a deep breath and slowly raised his hands in front of him. As he marched forward into the melee, he began frantically whispering in a language that I could only assume was Latin—the language all spells were written in.

I didn't know what Tommy was doing, but I listened, following close behind him. All I could do was hope for the best and be prepared to shift into a giant cat or something if his spell didn't work.

But it did.

Both Fallon and I yelled, "Look out!" when a guard first launched himself at us, baton raised, electric sparks spitting from the end of it, but all Tommy did was move his open-palmed hands to face the oncoming guard. When the guard got within two feet of Tommy's hands he crashed to the ground. It looked like he had run full force into an invisible wall. If we weren't in such a dire situation the guard's face smushed against non-existent glass would have been comical.

Another two guards ran at us but were also knocked down by Tommy's invisible shield. Once we made it through the largest part of the battle, Tommy lowered his hands and we ran for it. Over my shoulder, I saw a guard move to follow us only to get lifted off his feet by the guy with the silver aura and thrown harshly back onto the crumbling ground.

At the end of the hall Tommy turned right and pointed to a door at the very end of the hall. "There," he said, "That's the warden's real office." The sign on the door read "Custodial." It was the only door on the hall and the only way out was to go back the way we came.

The three of us stopped just outside the door. It wasn't locked or even shut like we would have expected. The door was cracked open and, despite the sound of the alarm, we heard someone moving inside.

We each exchanged a look, preparing to fight. One hand raised, Tommy swung the door open the rest of the way and my shoulders immediately slumped in relief.

"Brad!" I exclaimed. He was seated behind a large desk, much like the one in the fake office, clearly searching through something on the computer in front of him.

He had pulled his gun on us when we opened the door but when his eyes locked on my face he lowered it. "Marina," he sighed, his own relief reflected in the gushing sound of his voice. But he frowned again when his eyes landed on Tommy. "Tommy?" he asked, "What—where?"

"Later," I interrupted him, striding into the room and moving to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder at the computer screen. "Find anything?"

"Sort of," Brad said, frowning at the screen in front of him, "There are a bunch of email exchanges between the warden here and someone who signs his name 'XP', but they're all written in code."

Fallon laughed. "XP? Like the computer system?"

Brad ignored her. "I can't understand what they're saying in the emails but this XP guys is definitely higher up on the chain of command than the warden, possibly even the highest."

"But you're a hunter," Fallon said, picking up a diamond shaped paper weight, "Don't you know who you're big boss is?"

Brad shook his head. "No," he admitted, "The only boss I've ever known is my own father."

"Could he—" Fallon started but Brad quickly cut her off.

"No. My dad isn't this XP person."

"Okay," I said, jumping in, "So we can't decipher the emails, but is there anything else? Maybe on the hard drive?"

"Yeah, here," Brad said, closing the window with the many emails and opening a folder of files, "There's tons of different experiments, but most of them have been terminated."

My eyes scanned the statements he'd opened. Based on my brief encounter with him, the warden didn't exactly strike me as the type of guy to just give up. "Any idea why?"

"It doesn't say but I have a theory," Brad said, grimacing slightly.

I raised my eyebrows at him to tell him to keep talking.

Brad sighed and closed all the files he'd opened. "All the experiments have been terminated except one." He clicked on a folder that was labeled "Active Projects." There was only one folder inside it. "They call the experiment 'Project Extraction', but the folder is password protected. I can't open it."

I frowned, rereading the name of the locked folder over and over in my head. Project Extraction. Project Extraction. That name could indicate a number of things, but unless we found a way to open the folder there was no point worrying about an experiment we knew nothing about.

Brad seemed to share my resignation. "There's also lots of documents and blueprints indicating that the facility intends to expand, and quickly."

"Expand? Expand how?"

Brad seemed reluctant to answer. Cringing he said, "To make room for more prisoners."

I studied the documents Brad had pulled up. "But this doesn't make sense. It says here that they're looking to add a hundred more high security cells in just two weeks. Why would they want them completed so quickly? And how?"

"I don't know how they plan on accomplishing that but if they're trying to get it done quickly that could only mean one thing."

"And what's that?" Fallon asked.

"They're expecting a lot more prisoners," Brad said softly.

We were all quiet as the severity of that knowledge sunk in. We didn't know how, but the facility was planning on having at least a hundred new supernatural prisoners within the coming weeks. A million questions raced through my mind. Where did they expect to find these supernaturals? How were they going to capture them all? Could hunters really expect to face a group of supernaturals like that girl with the green aura, who could literally move the earth beneath their feet and expect to win?

Finally, I broke the silence. "We can't worry about their plans now," I said, "Our first priority is getting Jet and getting out of here."

Brad nodded. "I found a safe in the wall over there but it won't open without a key and a code."

Smiling, Tommy pulled the silver key he stole off the warden out of his pocket and walked over to the similarly colored safe. He stuck the key in the keyhole and turned. The small screen above a number pad came to life, giving Tommy thirty seconds to enter the correct four digit code.

"Great," Fallon said, pursing her lips as she looked over Tommy's shoulder, "Now what are we going to do? We don't know the code."

"Maybe we don't have to," Tommy said. Brad, Fallon and I watched as Tommy held his right hand over the number pad and began speaking in quickly in Latin once more. A few seconds later a magical force began pressing on the numbers in front of Tommy's hand. First the key for the number seven was pressed, then three, then three again and finally seven. The code 7337 flashed on the screen twice before we heard a click and the safe door opened.

Inside was a device with a large black button in the center and a plain manila file folder. I took the device while Brad grabbed the folder and immediately began rifling through the papers inside.

"Is that your universal key?" Fallon asked, eyeing the device in my hands. Besides the large black button, the device had a small screen listing the numbers of what I assumed was all the prison doors in the facility—most of which were listed as locked.

I glanced up at her. "Let's hope so," I said and then pressed down on the black button.

Nothing happened.

"Well," Fallon pouted, "That was anticlimactic."

"They're down here!" we heard a voice shout. All four of our heads snapped to the open office door where we saw a guard calling to others at the end of the hall.

Fallon rushed to close and lock the door. But I had a feeling a locked door wasn't going to be enough. Brad shoved a couple papers into the back pocket of his dark jeans, tossing the remains of the file folder aside, and rushed to help Fallon move one of the metal file cabinets in front of the door. A second later pounding erupted behind it as if dozens of rocks were being thrown at the slab of wood.

"Uhh, I think we better hurry," Fallon said, her eyes nervously scanning the quaking door.

Brad held out his hand to me. "Can I take a look at that?"

I handed over the device, hoping Brad could find some way to fix it—if it was even broken.

He flipped it over in his hands, taking in its shape and size. "I've seen something like this before," he said, examining it, "I think there's a second one on the wall in that main hallway."

"Great," I huffed, attempting to hide my fear, "So now all we have to do is get past the dozens of guards waiting out there to capture and or kill us?"

"We can't stay here," Brad said, looking around the room, "They'll get through that door eventually."

There was no other way out of the office. We all knew that.

I turned desperately to Tommy. "You don't have some huge knock-out spell or something, do you?"

Tommy shook his head. "No, sorry."

We had to fight. It was our only option. And if my guess about the number of guards that stood outside the door was correct, we really didn't stand a chance, supernatural or not.

"The vent," Fallon suddenly whispered.

"Huh?"

"The vent," she said again, more confidently. "We can escape through there."

Brad, Tommy and I studied the small opening in the wall.

"I don't know how small you think we are, but we're definitely not small enough to fit through that hole," Brad said, looking at Fallon like she was crazy.

Fallon just smiled back at him and part of me wondered if maybe she was crazy. "_We_ can't," she said, slyly, "But Marina can."


	15. Pandemonium

**THANK YOU for all the reviews! I seriously didn't expect that many for the last chapter, so thanks! You guys rock! As an extra thank you I am giving you the next chapter early :D**

**So, this chapter is much longer than the previous one, and it's got a lot more action in it. I really do like this chapter (and I'm not just saying that because I wrote it). A little of everything found its way into this one: action, humor, suspense…I even managed to sneak an intimate scene in there. Anyway, hope you guys like it and thanks again for reviewing!**

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head vigorously. "No way."

"Come on," Fallon said, "Just like we practiced, remember?"

"No!" I told her, "Fallon, it's not happening."

Tommy and Brad stared at us, oblivious to what we were arguing about.

"The situation calls for a small animal, so you adjust."

I glared at her.

"It's our only option," she pointed out.

I could feel the two boys' eyes on me. "Fine," I growled and then gestured to Tommy and Brad beside me, "You two—turn around. And no peeking."

Brad smirked at me. "Not like there's anything under there I haven't seen before."

If he hadn't turned his back to me just then I would have slapped him across the face. I wasn't in the mood to deal with his cheek.

As I pulled the torn dress over my head, I mouthed the words "I hate you" to Fallon.

She only smiled wider and held out her hand, in which I shoved my only article of clothing. "Sure you do," she said as I shifted into a tiny mouse—the same one I was when Fallon snuck me into see Jet that night in the tribe. Even though that was only a couple days ago, it already felt like a lifetime ago. I had been so concerned with getting out of the tribe and away from the chief, I would have never believed I would need to escape specifically designed hunter prison. I definitely wouldn't have believed that I would need to turn into a mouse again in order to do so. The mouse was really turning out to be the most useful new animal in my arsenal.

Fallon bent over and let me scurry into her free hand—I was small enough to fit perfectly in her palm.

"Is it safe to turn around?" Brad asked, hesitantly looking over his shoulder.

"Here," Fallon said, holding her hand (with me in it) out to Brad.

Raising his eyebrows, he gave her a look that clearly said "what-am-I-supposed-to-do?"

She rolled her eyes at him and pointed to the vent near the ceiling. "I can't reach up there."

Brad obediently held out his hands, cupping them together as if he was expecting me to leak out like water. I ran out of Fallon's hand and into Brad's. His hands were not only much larger but also rougher against the tiny pads of my paws. They shook a little as he pulled his hands back towards his chest, afraid of either dropping or squishing me.

He looked down at me and smiled. "She's cute," he said.

Because I couldn't glare at him, I did something better.

"Ow!" Brad exclaimed, jostling me in his hands but was careful not to drop me, "She bit me!"

Fallon laughed out loud. "I'm clearly rubbing off on her," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, "I would have bit you too."

Shooting Fallon a glare, he turned towards the air vent and whispered bitterly to me, "It was a compliment, you know."

I knew that, but it was kind of fun to mess with him. He was always pushing my buttons, why not enact a little revenge?

The pounding on the door increased and if my tiny mouse ears weren't mistaken a creaking caused by strain to the hinges followed. We needed to get out of here, and fast.

The boys seemed to sense, or at least hear, the same thing because Tommy quickly unscrewed the vent and Brad lifted his hands high enough for me to crawl inside.

Even though I knew our lives depended on it, I really did not like being in the vent. The dust was so thick it covered my paws and the small space smelled so rotten I was sure something had died in it ages ago and was now in the process of decomposing. I just hoped that I wasn't unfortunate enough to run into the remains of the poor creature.

There was a clunking sound of metal on metal as the device to open the prison doors was placed in the vent behind me.

"Take the key with you," came Fallon's voice from down below, "Try to get out near the main hallway and then use it to unlock all the cell doors. Hopefully the release of the rest of the prisoners will draw away some of the guards outside and we'll be able to get out of this damned office."

Her plan made sense. With more supernaturals running around the compound the guards would have to disperse. There was also the added bonus that Jet would be free and there would be five of us to fight any attempts from the guards to stop us from escaping. There was only one problem.

The device was bigger than I was.

When shapeshifting, I not only took on the form of the animal but also the strength. I had never noticed much difference in my physical strength when I shifted into my wolf—maybe I was a bit stronger—but I certainly noticed it as a mouse. With my tiny body came little strength. I knew I was fast but I wasn't strong. I hoped I was strong enough to take the device with me.

I scurried over to it and did my best to push it farther into the vent with my nose. It was heavy, but it moved. Pushing the thing all the way back to the main hallway wasn't going to be easy but, like Fallon said, it was our only option. We couldn't fight our way through the dozens of guards outside the door. But if there were only eight or nine, we stood a chance.

I ran as fast as I could through the vent, doing my best to find my way back to the main hallway. I sincerely hoped I was going the right way, but I probably would have had a hard time navigating the normal hallways nevermind a two by two enclosed space. A space which, I should add, was very dark. Although part of me was glad I couldn't see well because I was sure my little brown paws had turned grey from the thick layer of dust.

A spot of light appeared at the end of the tunnel and I ran harder, pushing the device towards it faster. It wasn't my smartest move. I ended up ramming the grate covering the vent.

Great.

Fallon's genius plan had run into a dead end—literally. How was I supposed to move the grate to get out of the vent? I was barely able to push the stupid device nevermind push the grate open. I ran to the edge of the vent and looked out through the slits.

Okay, I couldn't panic. Just like Fallon said—I had to adjust—I had to find the right animal that would allow me to escape the vent. But I couldn't think of a single animal that would not only be small enough to still fit in the vent but also strong enough to get out. If only tiny people existed—I could have reached a hand through the narrow opening and untwisted the screws.

I racked my brain for an animal, any animal, that would help my situation but came up empty. There was only one thing I could do, and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Two thoughts ran through my head as I prepared myself to shift: "this better work" and "this is going to hurt like hell."

I scrunched my eyes closed and shifted back into my human form.

The effect was immediate. My head slammed against the grate, pushing it out and detaching it from the wall. It clattered noisily to the ground, but, with the alarm going off and guards and prisoners scattered around the compound, the sound went unnoticed. Like the grate, I found myself becoming a slave to gravity as I fell head over feet to the floor. I did my best to roll as I hit the ground, trying to avoid breaking any bone. I succeeded, but, as I sat up to take in my surroundings, I realized I was going to have some pretty nasty bruises covering my body by tomorrow, not to mention a mountain-sized bump on top of my head.

Grabbing the device that had landed beside my leg, I stood up and looked down the hall I had fallen into. If I remembered correctly, I was only one door away from the main hallway.

Wishing that I didn't run into any guards, or at least that the guards didn't look twice at a naked girl running through their halls, I headed towards the center of the compound. I laughed to myself—it would take a miracle for someone not to notice me.

I rushed through the door just as I heard an unfamiliar voice shout "Stop!" Naturally, I didn't listen to her. Swiveling my head all around I frantically looked for the second key Brad mentioned. I spotted something on the far wall that appeared to be similarly shaped to the device. I made a mad dash for the second half of the device just as the guard following me came through the door.

"Stop!" she shouted again, but I ignored her.

I flipped the device upright and slid it into the holder on the wall.

"No!" the guard yelled—she had almost reached me, "Don't—"

She cut off when I did exactly what she didn't want me to do—I pressed the large black button—and all the color drained from her face. I would have bet that this was the last place she wanted to be.

The device lit up and, despite all the noise and commotion, I knew I had worked this time. The doors separating the hallways sprung open and down them I could see all the cell doors swinging forward, letting every prisoner out. A new head popped out of each doorway, a smile planted on all the prisoners' faces.

Some ran one way, convinced theirs was the quickest to the exit, while some ran the opposite way, immediately joining in the riot, and others just stood in the middle of the hall like they hadn't known freedom in so long that they didn't know what to do with it. But with the return of the guards came the return of their senses, and those simply standing around either jumped into an ongoing fight or initiated one.

It was absolute chaos.

But amidst the ferocious animals, the fast beating of wings, the sound of crackling electricity from the guards' weapons, the sudden gushes of wind, and—oh yeah—the _flaming balls of fire_ soaring through the air, a familiar head appeared in the doorframe of one of the cells.

"Jet!" I shouted, rushing over to him, "You're awake!"

Gazing around at the frenzied scene before him, he said, "Are you sure? Cause I think I might still be dreaming."

"Come on," I said, taking his hand and pulling him back in the direction of the warden's office, "we have to get the others."

"Whatever happened to getting out of here quickly and quietly?" he asked. His eyes widened and he quickly grabbed me by arms. Pressing my back against the wall, he encircled me with his body, shielding me from the ball of fire that flew past us.

I breathed in the air between us—air that seemed to be getting warmer by the second—something that I was sure had nothing to do with the fire being thrown.

"That plan was left outside with the car," I said, attempting humor, but my voice came out sounding more like it was weighed down by a hundred bricks rather than weightless as a joking tone should be.

His beautiful green eyes stared down at me. He seemed to be deciding whether or not to laugh. Then his gaze shifted downwards and I became painfully aware of how close we were. I could feel the heat from his body moving around me, caressing my skin. Only an inch or two stood between us, the space wavering every time one of us inhaled a shaking breath.

He seemed to be hovering around me—protecting me but purposely _not_ touching me—even restraining himself. I could tell by the conflicted look on his face that he wanted nothing more than to touch me, to hold me. And, for a minute there, I thought his control would break and he would wrap me in his arms, his lips devouring mine. But he didn't.

He turned his head and dropped his arms, allowing me to walk freely in the hallway and away from him. I could see it then—how I was breaking his heart. How even though he knew I loved him, the fact that I still hadn't made a decision was saddening him just as much as choosing to be with Brad would. I couldn't drag it out any longer. I wanted to hug him—to comfort him—but I knew that it would only make things worse. So instead, I scooted sideways slightly, increasing the distance between us.

"Come on," I said again, my voice strained with emotion. I didn't want to lose him, but I didn't want to lose Brad either.

Shaking my head, I tried to push my twisted love-life to the back of my mind as I shifted into my wolf form and, not saying a word, Jet followed suit.

The halls were full of guards, escaped prisoners, and even a few people in white lab coats, but Jet and I darted by each of them with ease, as if they were merely the stationary trees in the woods at home. When we reached the end of the hall that held the warden's office, I saw that Fallon had been right—most of the guards outside the office door had left to deal with the increasing number of supernaturals roaming the facility. Only four guards remained.

Jet and I charged them, catching the two closest off guard. They teetered, trying to maintain balance but we hit them from behind, knocking them to the ground. Leaving the barred door, the other two guards turned to face us. We growled and snapped at them, drawing closer. They held their electric batons out in front of them but couldn't seem to stop their bodies from shaking with fear.

Just then the office door behind them slammed open, revealing a very smug Fallon with Brad and Tommy flanked behind her.

"I thought I heard you," she said, eyeing the two remaining guards.

The guards glanced at the five of us and then at each other before making a break for the open office. They were clearly not the trained killers Brad's family was.

Both Jet and I shifted back into human form and Fallon handed us our clothes from her bag.

"Let's get out of here," I said. Everyone agreed and we ran back down the hall and into the mayhem. "Which way?"

The whole place felt like a giant maze to me. It was a miracle I had found the main hallway and the warden's office again. I couldn't be relied upon to find us a way out though.

"The exit's to your left," Brad said.

"We can't get out through there," Fallon said, worry creeping onto her face, "Remember what the warden said? All the doors to the outside are locked down. Why do you think all the prisoners are still here?"

"So what do we do?"

"We find another way out," Jet said.

"But—" Fallon started, only Brad cut her off.

"He's right. There has to be another way." A smile tugged at his lips. "Even if we all have to crawl through the air vents. Either way we can't just stand around and wait to be captured."

"Let's try this way," Tommy said, gesturing to the right and leading the way. We followed him through the halls, slowing when the color of the walls changed from a boring beige to a bright, eerie white. We turn a corner only to find it a dead end.

But huddled on the floor of that dead end was a small girl with light blonde hair. Standing over her were two guards, poised to attack. Tommy and Brad sprung into action—Tommy using a spell to pin a guard against the wall while Brad hit the other over the head with his gun. The girl gave a soft cry, cowering even more when both boys took a step towards her.

"Stop," I told them, slowly moving closer to the girl. She couldn't have been more than twelve years old. "She's terrified." I watched her, widening my gaze to find her aura.

"She has a golden aura," Brad said at the same time I realized this myself.

I crouched down so I was at the same level as the girl. Her startling violet eyes shifted from me to Tommy and then back to me. "What are you," I asked softly, then added, "We won't hurt you."

The girl gulped but didn't move her gaze off of me. "A faerie," she whispered, then pointed to Tommy, "You're a sorcerer."

I glanced back at him but if he was surprised the girl knew this he didn't show it. He simply nodded.

Relaxing slightly, the girl turned back to me. "But what are you?" she asked. Her eyes found Jet for a second. "And him?"

"Shapeshifters," I told her, "I'm Marina. This is John, Tommy, Brad, and Fallon."

"Lila," she said."

"Umm, do I need to remind you all that we are still trapped in here?" Fallon said.

I held a hand out to Lila. "We're trying to escape, would you like to come with us?"

She nodded slowly before taking my hand and allowing me to help her stand. The six of us backtracked down the hall. The atmosphere was definitely different in this area of the facility. The halls were almost quiet and every sound echoed like a shout in the Grand Canyon. It was practically deserted.

Lila didn't let go of my hand as we continued to wander through the halls. I wondered where she had come from, if her family was still looking for her, and what it meant to be a faerie. We rounded a corner and immediately ducked as one of the guard's electric batons came flying at us. I yanked Lila towards the tile floor to keep her out of harm's way. I was starting to rethink the whole deserted aspect of this part of the facility. When seeing that the baton had landed safely far away from my friends, I looked up to see another fight taking place. I immediately recognized the two supernaturals from earlier—the girl with the green aura and the guy with the silver one—fighting at least a dozen guards. Despite their efforts it was clear they were outnumbered. The girl's powers continued to amaze me as I noticed how she had summoned vines and tree branches out of nowhere to tie up three or four guards. The ability to create earthquakes and the ability to control plant life? Whoever—whatever—this girl was, she was not to be toddled with. Despite the girl's amazing powers, the guy with the silver aura (and silver wings) seemed to realize that they were outnumbered.

"Kiara!" he shouted, "Get back!"

The girl seemed to know what the boy was about to do because she didn't hesitate to backpedal until she bumped right into Fallon.

The seven of us watched as the guy walked up to the battalion of guards. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me—that I had inhaled some sort of hallucinogenic or suddenly needed glasses. But my eyes weren't lying. I watched, stunned, as the guy with the silver aura grew larger and larger. Not only did he grow taller but he also grew wider, his proportions never changing. He grew until he filled the hallway, blocking the guards from view. I had clearly not met enough supernaturals, because this guy's ability amazed me just as much, if not more, than the girl with the green aura.

The guy with the silver aura—who had to be at least fifteen feet tall by now—simply swiped a hand and knocked six guards to the ground. Another swipe of his oversized hand and the last six guards were knocked out. He then began to shrink back down to normal size.

Once he was a little less than six feet tall again, he turned and took Kiara's hand in his. When he looked up and saw the numerous shocked expressions on him, he shrugged, his silver wings slowly beating behind him. "What?"

Lila seemed to duck behind me even more at the sight of the guy. Why was she so afraid of him? It wasn't like he was going to attack us—he was clearly on our side.

Kiara—who I was starting to suspect was silver-wings/freaky-growing guy's girlfriend—smiled at us. "I'm Kiara," she said, "And this is Kye."

I smiled politely back at her, after all, she was earthquake girl as I had previously dubbed her and I definitely didn't want to get on her bad side.

Brad, however, clearly wasn't thinking about Kiara's amazing powers—or, maybe he was. "I'm sorry, you can control the earth, but what are you?"

Kiara only chuckled. "A nymph," she said, "and I don't _control_ the earth—no one can—I communicate with the earth and ask it for favors from time to time."

I raised my eyebrows at her—but not in disbelief—in awe. She merely had to ask nicely and the earth would move for her.

Kye scowled at us. "Kiara," he said curtly, "We don't have time for pleasantries."

Kiara rolled her eyes but nodded to him. "We think the best way out is through the labs," she told us, "There's a door there that leads to the roof."

Trying not to think about how not all of us could fly and how we planned on getting off the roof, we agreed to follow Kiara and Kye. We really didn't have a better idea. Blindly running around the whole compound wasn't going to get us very far, and it certainly was not going to get us outside.

Tommy and Fallon fell into step behind Kiara and Kye, with Jet behind them, Lila and I behind Jet, and Brad bringing up the rear.

We turned left then right then again, until Kiara called from the front, "The labs are just up here on our left."

But that was when we heard it. Not just pounding of footsteps but marching—the marching of dozens of boots. More guards. And from the sound of it, a lot more than we could handle, even with seven of us ready and willing to fight.

"Quick! This way!" Kiara shouted, as she ran down the hall and ducked inside a room.

Squeezing Lila's hand, I followed. The room was dark but I could tell that we were in some sort of laboratory—only it wasn't like the science labs in the high school. There were a lot more high tech machines and silver examination tables that I thought were only used in coroner's offices.

Once everyone was inside, Kiara shut the door and locked it. We were all quiet. Hiding was our best option—we just had to wait for them to look someplace else for us and then we could sneak up to the roof. Beside me, Lila was practically shaking in fear; both her hands gripped my arm so tightly I was sure I would have small finger shaped bruises there tomorrow.

The marching drew closer and closer until they were right outside our door. Then it stopped.

Me, and everyone around me, held their breath.

"They're in here!" we heard a guard shout. The man on the other side of the door tried the doorknob, but, of course, it didn't turn.

"How did they find us?" I whispered to the group. I glanced around at my friends and allies until my eyes came to rest on Fallon, who was making a slightly disgusted, slightly annoyed face.

"I think it has something to do with the life-sized Tinkerbell next to you," she said, pointing to Lila.

I looked down at Lila and, for the first time, noticed a layer of gold dust on the floor around her feet—gold dust that left a trail all the way under the door. "What—?" I started, but I didn't get to finish my question.

A solid _thud_ sounded in the room as Brad dropped to the floor, unconscious.


	16. Three Wishes

**New chapter! Yay! Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews. Although I know pretty much all of you are rooting for Jet, I hope that you were at least **_**a little**_** worried about Brad….**

"Brad?!" I squeaked, my voice immediately losing its hushed tone. I rushed over to where he had fallen and kneeled beside him but he didn't respond. "Brad?" I asked again. He still didn't stir.

"Oh no. Oh no," I heard Lila moan behind me.

I lifted his head in my hands, staring at his slack face, willing his eyes to open. "Brad!" Nothing. I felt like an icy hand crab claw was clamped down on my heart and I knew it wouldn't let go until Brad woke up. What was wrong with him?

"Oh no," Lila said again.

I turn my head to see her holding her arms around herself, nervously glancing between the locked door—where the guards were still waiting outside—and the unconscious Brad. I looked back to Brad, but his state hadn't changed.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, eyes moving to each of my friends for answers. None of them seem to have any.

"I'm so sorry," Lila said, almost hiccupping with anxiety, "This is all my fault."

"It's okay," I told her. I wasn't particularly worried about the guards at the moment. I wanted to know what had caused Brad to drop to the floor unconscious for no apparent reason. "I'm sure we can handle the guards."

Lila bit her lip. "Na-no," she stuttered, "not them—well, yeah the guards too—but I meant him." She pointed a shaky finger to the passed out Brad.

I frowned, glancing between Lila and Brad—whose head I still held in my hands.

"What are you talking about?" Fallon shot, voicing my own question, although I would have asked a little nicer. What was Lila talking about?

The words seemed to literally spill from the preteen's mouth. "When faeries feel threatened we release this gold dust," Lila explained quickly, her eyes locked on Brad.

"You should know how to keep that in check, faerie," Kye practically spat, piping up.

Kiara took his arm and whispered something in his ear. I wasn't sure exactly what she said but I did manage to catch something about being nice.

My eyes flitted between Lila's nervous expressions and Kye's hostile one. Something in my gut was telling me it wasn't a good idea to have the two of them in the same room. I didn't know what it was but ever since Lila hid behind me in the hallway when Kye first approached us, I knew I had to keep them separate.

"Faerie dust?" Tommy asked curiously, eyeing the trail of shining dust littering the floor, "I've always wondered what..."

"Tommy," I warned, "not the time."

"Right," Tommy said, shaking his head but his eyes didn't leave the Lila's faerie dust.

"What does this have to do with Brad?" Jet asked Lila.

Lila clasped her hands together, fidgeting with them as if she thought they'd do more unintentional damage. "If inhaled the dust causes people to pass out," she clarified.

"And Brad was running right behind you." My eyes widened as I realized exactly what had happened. Fearing capture again, Lila's body had somehow released the gold dust as the group followed Kiara through the halls. Brad had been bringing up the rear, and was the only person behind Lila. He must have been inhaling the dust for at least a couple minutes, and, when they reached the lab, it became too much for his body and he lost consciousness. Looking back at Brad, who looked so peaceful amongst the panic and chaos that surrounded the rest of us, I asked, "How do we wake him up?"

"It takes about an hour for the effects to wear off," Lila said, grimacing.

"Is there another way?" I asked, lifting the entire upper half of Brad's body onto my lap. There was no way we could wait an hour.

"Yeah," Fallon scoffed, "cause we don't really have time for the princess here to get his beauty rest."

I glared at her. "Not helping," I said. Fallon shrugged.

"I've never seen it work," Lila started slowly, "but supposedly a small electric shock will also wake him."

"Great, so we have to electrocute a guy who's unconscious because of some gold glitter?" Fallon asked, rolling her eyes. She then turned on Kiara and Kye, "Neither of you two happen to be able to create electricity, do you?"

"I'm a pixie," Kye stated, crossing his arms—as if we understood what that meant, but the numerous blank stares he received he either didn't catch or ignored. I had a feeling it was the latter.

Kiara shook her head, remorse painted across her face. "My powers are limited to the earth element."

Great. What were we going to do now? The gears in my head began to turn. If we somehow managed to get past the army of guards that had congregated outside the door and got back to the fake office Fallon and I had found Tommy in then we could use the electric chair hookup to wake Brad. However, although I told Lila we could take out the guards again, I lied. Even with our medley of powers I knew we didn't stand a chance against all those guards. I was sure that, this time, there were well over a hundred outside. What I didn't understand was why they hadn't knocked down the door yet. What were they waiting for?

Jet swiveled his head around the lab, scanning the work stations. "I have an idea," he said, eyeing one of them. He hurried over to an area across the room and began moving things around and opening drawers. "This'll do," I heard him mutter to himself before returning to us.

He kneeled down on the other side of Brad, no doubt taking in and trying to accept the way I clung to Brad. Looking up to Tommy, Kiara and Kye, he said, "I need you three to do everything you can to make sure the guards don't come through that door."

Tommy nodded. Kye looked like he wanted to dispute the order but Kiara grabbed his arm and dragged him away from Jet.

Jet's eyes moved behind me to where I knew Lila still stood. I turned to see she had succumbed to tears. She was only one step away from hysterical. When I looked back to Jet, he was staring at me.

"I need you to get her calm," he whispered, glancing at Lila.

I stared back at him, knowing my eyes would say more than my mouth could. "But Brad—"

Jet shook his head slightly. "We can't risk her being all worked up and releasing more faerie dust that'll make us all pass out," he said softly, "And you're the only one she seems to trust."

I looked back at Lila again. I could see that he was right—even in the past few minutes the pile of gold dust surrounding Lila's feet had doubled in size.

Fallon gently laid her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay," she told me, glancing down at Brad, "I'll take over here."

It was strange—seeing such strong compassion in Fallon's eyes—it was overpowering. I immediately knew Brad would be safe with her—that she'd never let anything happen to him.

I helped shift Brad's weight over to Fallon and Jet, who carried him over to the other side of the room, following them with my gaze until they gently laid him down on the floor. I couldn't take my eyes off of Brad even as I walked over to comfort Lila. Whatever Jet's plan was, I hoped it worked.

"Hey," I said softly to Lila, looking down to her sobbing figure, "Look at me."

She lifted her head until our eyes locked. "Everything will be okay," I told her firmly, "We are going to get out of here, I promise. You just have to calm down."

"I—I can't," she hiccupped.

I smiled at her. "Sure you can. Just focus on something else."

Her eyes flitted over to the locked door before returning to me.

"Forget about them," I said, "Think about something else."

"Bu—but they're right there," she moaned, "They're going to get us."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Really? I don't think so."

She didn't seem convinced.

"What can you do?" I prompted.

She looked confused. "Wha—what can I—?"

I nodded. "If those guards were to come in here, what could you do to them?"

She pondered my question for a second, looking down at her bare feet and all the gold dust that surrounded them. Then she smiled. "I could knock them out with my faerie dust?"

My smile widened. "Can you imagine how funny it would be to see all those big, strong men suddenly drop to the floor?"

A laugh escaped her mouth. "That _would_ be funny," she giggled.

"See?" I said, "We're going to be just fine. And, if they do come through the door I'm sure we'll all get a big laugh out of the guards passing out."

Lila nodded eagerly.

"Come on," I said, taking her hand again, "Let's go see how they're doing with Brad."

"Marina?" Lila asked, sounding slightly nervous again.

"What is it?"

"I'm really sorry about what I did to Brad," she said.

I smiled sadly at her, then pulled her against me. "It's okay," I told her, "You didn't mean to. You were scared. We all were."

We walked across the white tile to where Jet, Fallon and Brad were.

"What are you doing?" I asked them, noticing the stripped wires and piece of plastic in Brad's mouth.

Not looking up from what he was doing on the countertop, Jet said, "We cut some of the wires from this DNA analysis machine and have placed them in each of Brad's hands. I'm hoping that if we flip the power switch, the exposed wires will give him a shock big enough to wake him."

"Hoping?"

Jet glanced up at me. "Electricity is tricky," he said, "But we only stripped two of the power wires so the shock shouldn't be strong enough to really hurt him."

I nodded but, for the first time, Jet's words didn't exactly comfort me.

"Okay," Fallon said, "I'm all ready over here."

"Alright, everyone stand back," Jet said and Fallon, Lila and I all took a step back. Jet pressed the button on the machine. My eyes were on the wires exposed to Brad's skin, but I didn't see anything. Why wasn't it working? Oh god, what if…

But my thoughts were silenced at the sound of Brad's voice.

"Ow," he said, sitting up and looking to Jet, "Man, you could have eased up a bit."

"Had to make sure the shock went through your thick head," Jet replied.

"Brad," I whispered.

I didn't think he heard me over the alarm, but his head turned in my direction. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly at me.

That was when I launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "You're okay," I laughed, "You're awake." Even though I had my back to him, I could feel Jet's eyes on me.

He chuckled, but eagerly returned my hug. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't get enough sleep last night."

I laughed again, shaking my head as I pulled myself out of his arms. Despite my happiness over Brad's recovery, I couldn't help but noticed Fallon's pursed lips and longing eyes. But a second later the look was gone when the alarm turned off.

The room got eerily quiet. We had all grown accustomed to the blaring alarm, but now our ears were ringing with silence.

"Something tells me that isn't a good sign," Fallon said.

No sooner were the words out of her mouth then the door to the hall fell forward despite Tommy, Kiara, and Kye's efforts. I stared at the impossibility of it—I knew Tommy had put his invisible shield up against the door and that Kiara had literally grown five trees in front of it—there was no way that door could have simply fallen into the room the way it did. From the shocked expressions on Kiara and Kye's faces, I was sure they were just as stunned as I was.

Six guards charged into the room. Jet, Fallon, Brad, Lila and I rushed to assist the three, but Tommy quickly recovered from the shock of the busted door. He bent down and scooped up a pile of Lila's faerie dust. Then, holding his hands up to the approaching guards, he moved his mouth across his hands, blowing the dust in all the guard's faces.

They stopped and one coughed as they breathed in the faerie dust. A second later the six of them were all on the floor unconscious.

"Nice, Tommy!" I told him, smiling.

I looked to see Brad frowning at the guards. Rubbing the back of his head, he said, "That hurt."

We were ready for the guard's oncoming attack—confident even. I no longer cared about how many were out there. We could take them, as long as they kept trying to come through the doorway.

My confidence immediately wavered when I saw that no more guards were attempting to come into the lab. Instead, they had lined the wall in the hallway, almost standing at attention. They couldn't possibly be hoping we would come quietly, could they? Unless, they were actually going to let us go…no, they definitely wouldn't do that.

Even though I was still in human form, I couldn't help but growl when the warden Fallon had knocked out earlier, appeared in the doorway. When my eyes found the newly forming bruise on the side of his head, I smiled. Fallon got him good. I wanted to shift and charge him, but I paused, trying to decide which set of jaws would be best to tear his head off. I wondered if I could turn into a dinosaur. I had never attempted it before but I liked the idea of a raptor's teeth clamping down on the warden's neck.

I took a step forward only to find that I couldn't. Frowning, I glanced around at my friends—everyone seemed to have the same problem I did—we couldn't move.

"What the—?" Fallon said, no doubt tugging her feet forward but failing.

I tried to move my hand but also failed. We were paralyzed from the neck down.

Crap.

Panicked, I looked back up at the warden. He was smiling—of course he was smiling. I wanted to rip his head off even more.

That was when I noticed that the warden wasn't alone. Standing off of the warden's right shoulder was a young man who looked to be maybe a little older than Taz. He had brown skin and long hair. It was so long that he had it pulled back in a ponytail. His hair was dark brown, but that was only his original hair color. The man had a dyed streak of every color of the rainbow running from the top of his head to the swinging strands of his ponytail.

The longer I stared at the man, the more I narrowed my eyes until I caught a glimpse of a purple aura. My spirits lifted—this man, whatever he was, could help us.

"Hey!" I yelled to the man with the multicolored hair, "Help us!"

But the man didn't answer, he didn't even move.

The warden smiled at me. "Milos is deaf," he said as if he was praising a god, "he can't hear you, nor can he help you."

"What is he?" Brad asked, squinting at Milos to look at his aura just as I had.

Next to me, Tommy gasped, grabbing everyone's attention. "He's a genie," he whispered, as if even as the words left his mouth he still couldn't believe it.

The warden smiled at Tommy. "Very good, Thomas."

I frowned. Thomas? How did this guy know Tommy? And why did he sound like he was pleased with him for getting the right answer? My mind began to wander back to the questions I posed when we first found Tommy, like what he was doing here.

"A genie? Seriously?" Fallon asked, skeptical. It was a look I had seen on Jet's face countless times last year when we had first been introduced to other supernaturals. It was also a look I saw on him less and less as the year went on…and our lives got crazier.

"Genies are extremely rare," Tommy said, his eyes still wide, "Most of the lore about them is true—except they don't live in lamps. They can grant every person three wishes. But they don't stick around for you to think of three good ones. Usually you don't even know they're there, and they'll grant whatever wish they hear. So you end up with a cancelled test or a temporarily mute sibling instead of a winning lottery ticket.

"The key to actually getting three wishes you want is to trap a genie, but, because they can evaporate into smoke at any moment, that's nearly impossible. If by some miracle you do manage to capture one you still have to be careful with what you say around them, cause they can twist anything into a wish." Tommy looked at the warden, seemingly wary. "But if he's deaf…then that gives you the ability to think through your three wishes."

I tilted my head to the right slightly, listening for a second. Sure enough, there was a faint scratching noise. I couldn't tell where it was coming from or what was causing it, but I wasn't imagining it.

The warden nodded to Tommy, still smiling. "Exactly. But—just as you said—we had to be very careful with what we said around Milos here when we first captured him. It got easier once we surgically removed his eardrums."

I was horrified. This man had actually took away someone's hearing for his own benefit. "You're a monster," I hissed at him.

The scratching noise increased, but the warden didn't seem to notice it, or, if he did, he didn't care. I glanced up and immediately saw the workings of a sentence being scratched onto the ceiling. My eyes flitted over to Tommy who was muttering frantically under his breath—his eyes glued to the ceiling above him. I quickly returned my gaze to the warden and Milos. Seeing that Milos was staring at the ceiling—waiting to see what Tommy would wrote—I plastered the most sincere expression of hatred on my face and directed it at the warden. I had to keep his attention.

The warden only glared at me, oblivious as to what was happening above his head. "No, my dear, _that_ would be you," he spat. He pulled a piece of paper and pen from the pocket of his jacket. "And now, I think I'll write down my third wish to be for Milos to kill you all."

But the warden didn't even get a chance to write one letter on the paper because he disappeared. He was gone, and so were the guards that had been stationed outside. They all vanished.

"Where did he go?" Jet asked suspiciously, his eyes scanning the room as if the warden was going to suddenly pop out from behind a table.

Tommy walked over to the open doorway, stuck his head out and looked down the hallway.

The rest of us tested the boundaries of our paralysis, discovering that we were free to move on our own again.

"We're free," Brad said, "But how?"

I looked up to read what Tommy wrote on the ceiling and laughed.

Tommy stood next to Milos and smiled mischievously. "I asked Milos to lock the warden and all the guards in the prison cells," he said.

We all smiled, trying not to choke on our laughter. Even Milos smiled.

I turned to Milos, and even though I knew he couldn't hear me, I told him thank you. He seemed to understand because he nodded at me before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke.


	17. Outside the Box

**Another chapter! Whew! I think I'm on a roll…**

**Anyway, thank you times a million to everyone who reviewed. I know I've said this before, but, if you haven't reviewed please do! I would LOVE to know what your thoughts are about my story :)**

"Okay," Fallon said, "Can we _please_ get out of here now?"

No one argued with her. I certainly wasn't going to. We had already spent more time in this prison than we wanted to—than we needed to.

"Finally," Kye huffed, "someone has some sense." Kiara shot him a glare but he ignored it. It occurred to me that she must really love him if she's willing to constantly put up with such a crass attitude.

The eight of us made our way to the opposite side of the lab where a door revealed (surprise, surprise!) another hallway.

"Are you sure there's roof access down here?" Jet asked Kiara, skepticism painted all over his face. He was probably feeling the same way I was: that we were trapped in an endless maze of hallways.

Kiara pointed to a door at the very end of the hall. "See that door?" she asked, not expecting an answer, "That's our way out."

We continued walking. At last. I would be able to breathe easy again once I saw the blue sky. Beside me, I felt Lila breathe a sigh of relief. I briefly wondered how long she had been a prisoner here before pushing the thought to the back of my mind. I couldn't focus on what might have happened to her while in the facility, I had to focus on how she was free now. Free to go home.

I realized with a jolt that I was too.

I could go home now. It had been weeks since I'd seen my mom, Skye and Cole; weeks since I'd seen my other friends; weeks since I had slept in my own bed. It had been weeks since I'd addressed my problems. Even in the tribe—even finding out that I could shift into any animal—I had been able to avoid the prophecy and my connection to it, Brad's connection to it. Brad. I had been able to avoid my tangled feelings for him and Jet.

Going home meant I would have to deal with all that. I had to fix my problems. No more running.

Because that was exactly what I'd been doing: running. I ran to Australia. Although I was taken to the tribe against my will, I had to admit I welcomed the distraction. And I had been almost too willing to help Jet break into this facility in search of his birth mother.

Jet. I stole a glance in his direction. How could I have forgotten the reason we were here to begin with? He hadn't mentioned anything about Deirdre, which could only mean one thing: whatever he'd discovered (if anything) wasn't good. I wanted to ask him about it, but decided against it. I didn't want to confront him with everyone else around. I hoped I would get the chance to pull him aside later on and talk about it.

In fact, I had a lot to talk about with Jet. But all that had to wait.

Just then, a feeling hit me. It was one of the strangest feelings I had ever felt. There was nothing like it…except, maybe…the feeling of déjà vu.

That was it. Déjà vu. I quickly realized that anything I had thought to be déjà vu before wasn't. It wasn't nearly as strong as this feeling. This was intense, overpowering, and yet, unclear. It was like anytime I tried to get a handle on the feeling it would squirm its way out of my grasp.

As with déjà vu, I felt like I had been here, in this moment, before—that whatever I was about to do—I had already done it, which wasn't possible because I had never been down this hallway before. It didn't make any sense.

The more I tried to understand what I was feeling the more the ache in my head grew. Holding a hand to my head, I stopped walking, leaning against the wall a bit.

"Marina?" I heard Jet's voice, laced with worry, reach out to me. I clung to the sound, desperately trying to pull back from the déjà vu. "Are you okay?"

I closed my eyes and Jet took hold of my hand. Taking a deep breath in, I squeezed his hand.

"Brad?" Fallon asked, worry also pinging in her tone.

I opened my eyes, to find Jet's green ones watching me cautiously. I smiled at him. "I'm okay."

I looked over to Brad who was also slumped against the wall. He was staring at me, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face.

"You felt it too?" he asked me, more as a confirmation of something he already knew rather than a direct question.

I nodded. I glanced around, but no one else seemed to be recovering from such a strain on their mind. My eyes wandered around the all until they locked on the door behind the group—the door that Kiara had said would allow access to the roof. Whatever was responsible for that intense feeling of déjà vu, it was behind that door.

I straightened up, allowing Jet to help me. It wasn't that I was still weak. Thankfully, the feeling had passed. But the concern on his face was deep that I didn't have the heart to tell I didn't need his support anymore—or maybe I just wanted to relish in the feeling of his hand in mine a few moments longer.

I looked back to Brad who was also eyeing the closed door behind the group. "We have to go in there," I said, although I was sure he already knew this. In fact, everyone knew this, but they didn't know there was now a new reason why.

"Umm, duh," Fallon said, as if to prove my point. She was frowning—she clearly thought we had gone insane. No one but Brad and I understood that something—or someone—important was behind that door.

Kiara tried the door. "It's locked."

Stretching his arms high over his head, Tommy stepped forward. "Not a problem," he said. Once again, he began talking in Latin, holding his hand over the doorknob. A few seconds later there was a distinctive _click_ and Tommy turned the knob.

We all walked into the alcove, Brad and I more cautiously than the others. Directly ahead of us was a set of stairs, but to the left was another door and a giant glass window. But it wasn't an ordinary glass window—it was slightly darker, almost as if there were two panes—and that was when I realized it was a two-way mirror.

Almost as if we were drawn to the window, Brad and I found ourselves standing in front of it, staring into a small, square room. It looked like the facility's form of an interrogation room. Inside stood a girl who looked to be about our age, maybe slightly younger, but I was only basing that assumption on her height—she was shorter than both Fallon and I. She had shoulder length, curly dark hair, and was leaning against the brick wall that imprisoned her.

I wasn't sure why, but I got the sense she was waiting for someone.

Before I could consider that thought further, she spoke up. "There you are!" she exclaimed.

Brad and I exchanged looks, confused as to how she could see us. Although, I supposed the room wasn't necessarily sound proof. The rest of our group crept forward, curiosity getting the best of them.

"I was beginning to wonder if you guys would ever show up," she laughed as if she was making a joke. No one else laughed with her—further looks of confusion were exchanged. The girl continued, "For a second I even thought that maybe the future had changed and you guys took a different route."

I glanced around at my friends—every single one of them was staring through the mirror at the girl as if she's crazy.

I turned to the door beside the mirror and tried to open it, but, of course, like every other door in this facility, it was locked.

"Uh, Marina?" Fallon said hesistantly, "We're kind of in the middle of an escape here. We don't have time to stop and smell the roses."

"She's a prisoner," I told her—and everyone else for that matter, "We have to help her."

Tommy, Jet and Fallon exchanged looks. I didn't like what their looks said.

"Marina," Jet said slowly, "If she's a prisoner then why isn't she in one of the cells?"

"How should I know?" I said, "Maybe she had information they wanted so they took her here to interrogate her."

"If it was information they wanted they wouldn't have taken her here," Tommy said softly, "They would have tortured her."

Everyone was silent as Tommy's words sunk in. What he said might have been true but it didn't matter.

"So they wanted her for something else." I shrugged. "Will you please just help me get her out?" I tugged on the door again, but it didn't budge.

"Marina, listen to me," Jet said, resting a hand on my shoulder, "She could be dangerous."

"Or she could be one of the guards here," Fallon pointed out, "Tommy did ask that genie guy to put all the guards in prison cells. Maybe he ran out of cells."

"She's not dangerous and she's not a guard," Brad said.

"And how do you know this?" Fallon demanded, placing her hands on his hips.

Brad shrugged.

"We just do," I said. This girl was the reason for our intense déjà vu feeling out in the hall, but I knew she wasn't dangerous.

"Sorry," Fallon said, not sounding sorry at all, "but that's not good enough."

"Why are you guys evening debating this?" Kye demanded, "The exit is _right there_! Let's go!"

I marched over to him and stuck my head in his face, getting as close as I dared before I was afraid he'd punch me. "That girl has probably been tortured in here, just like the rest of you, and you just want me to leave her here?"

For a second I thought Kye really was going to punch me. But then he took a step back, shaking with anger and frustration. He threw his hands in the air. "Of all the people to get stuck with," he muttered, "We had to get a freakin' martyr."

"Kye…" Kiara said warningly but Kye ignored her.

"No," he told her, "This is where I draw the line. Are you coming, Kiara? They want to stay? Fine, they can have a nice life in prison." He turned and stalked off up the stairs.

Kiara glanced between us and Kye, before smiling apologetically at me. "Sorry, but I can't stay here any longer."

I nodded in understanding. "It's okay."

"Thank you for helping," she said.

"Helping?!" Kye called from the top, "They didn't do anything helpful!"

"_Sorry_ about him too," she laughed before turning and following Kye up the staircase, disappearing out of sight.

Once they were gone, Jet looked between me and Brad. "At least check her for an aura, before you do anything," he said, his eyes pleading with me.

I didn't understand why he was so worried. I knew for a fact that this girl wasn't dangerous. Why couldn't they see it too?

"Or stand aside so one of us can," Tommy said, stepping towards me.

I moved to my right slightly, shifting closer to Brad. He seemed to be my only ally when it came to this girl.

Tommy watched the girl on the other side of the mirror, his eyes narrowing. For the hell of it, I decided to do the same. I immediately picked up an aura around the girl—a white aura. Like most auras, I had no idea what that meant, but, if anything I was further convinced she wasn't dangerous. I mean, white usually meant innocence, right?

"Okay," Tommy said beside me, "Let's get her out."

Fallon raised her eyebrows at him. "Umm, care to clue us in on what's behind door number three, genius?"

"She's a seer," Tommy said, as if that was explanation enough, "Completely harmless." He moved to the door, and, holding his hand over the knob like before, began whispering in Latin.

Only this time, nothing happened. There was no _click_ and the knob didn't turn.

Tommy frowned, snatching his hand away from the doorknob as if it shocked him. "The door's been guarded against spells," he said.

"How is that possible?" Jet asked, posing the question to everyone but no one answered. He turned on Brad, as if this was his fault. "I thought this place was run by shapeshifter hunters."

Brad raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "It's supposed to be. How did the warden manage to capture a genie?" Brad asked, his voice rising, "I'm as much in the dark about all this as you are."

Both Jet and Brad narrowed their eyes at each other.

Sensing a fight, I marched between them. "Stop it!" I yelled at them, "Go stand by the stairs and turn around. You too, Tommy."

They looked like they were going question what I was doing but I managed to get words out of my mouth faster.

"Fallon, take my clothes," I said, then turning to the mirror, yelled, "Back away from the door!" I could only hope that the girl heard me. Then pointing a finger and glaring at Fallon, I said, "And I don't want to hear one peep out of you." Her only response was to raise her eyebrows.

Making sure the boys weren't looking, I undressed and shifted into a gorilla. The weight of my arms, startled me at first, but then I got my bearings. Definitely not the most graceful of animals, but, then again, I wasn't looking for graceful.

Scrunching my large hands into fists, I pounded them against the glass of the mirror until it shattered into thousands of pieces. I shifted back into human form and turned to take my dress back from Fallon. Only the sound of breaking glass had caused all three boys to turn. Whether or not they saw me as a gorilla I didn't know, but I did know they had seen me naked. Tommy—the good guy that he is—quickly averted his eyes. Jet and Brad on the other hand…well, let's just say they were enjoying the view.

Scowling, I pulled the dress over my head. Once I was clothed again, Jet and Brad looked away sheepishly, realizing they had been staring. _They better damn well feel ashamed_, I thought grudgingly as I turned to the now open hole.

"Thanks, Marina," the girl said, tiptoeing around the broken glass inside the small room.

How did she know my name?

Tommy rushed forward to help her through the hole. She willingly took his hand and carefully lifted a leg over to our side before hopping over the ledge.

"Gosh, for a second there I thought you guys might actually leave me there." She chuckled. "I'm just kidding. I knew you'd let me out."

Brad, Jet, Fallon, Tommy and I all exchanged a look. It said, "who the hell is his girl and what is she talking about?" We were all frowning—except for Lila, who just looked scared again.

"Uhh, right," Brad said, then gesturing to the stairs, "Shall we?"

Fallon nodded fervently, following him up the stairs. The rest of continued behind them. There were only two sets of stairs we had to climb before we reached the door to the roof. Brad pushed it open and we were immediately hit with a warm, Arizona breeze. Despite the heaviness of the air, I took a deep breath in. Finally. We were out.

We walked over to the edge and looked down. It wasn't a particularly long way down, but it was long enough to break a bone if we jumped. Below I spotted Brad's black Charger—a car I was starting to see as our getaway vehicle.

"Marina?" Lila asked nervously.

I looked over to her. "Yeah? You okay?" I asked. She seemed infinitely happier now that we were outside—it was almost as if she was literally glowing with joy—and yet she was definitely still worried about something.

She nodded. "I was just wondering what you were planning on doing now."

Oh. Of course Lila would want to come with us. I wondered where she lived. We would have to take her home before heading back to California. "Well, I guess we're going to have to all cram into Brad's car down there."

She glanced down at the car—she didn't look too happy anymore. But, then again, _I_ wasn't exactly happy about squeezing seven people into a car that seated five—that was assuming that seer-girl was coming with us—she hadn't said anything about it but she seemed to think so.

"On second thought, I think I'll stick to my own way of travel," Lila said, then she smiled up at me, "Thank you, Marina." She ran forward and hugged me. It took me by surprise at first but, after a second or two, I wrapped my arms around her, returning the hug.

Lila took a step back. I watched as a set of purely gold wings unfurled from her back. The sight was truly amazing. If I didn't know any better I would have thought she was an angel.

She shot me one last smile before her wings began to flutter and she soared into the air, flying away.

Fallon walked up beside me, staring at Lila. "I have to admit," she said, "I wasn't expecting that."

"Which part?" Brad asked, moving to stand on my other side, also watching as the young faerie grew smaller and smaller. I heard three more pairs of feet walk over to us.

Fallon didn't answer right away. After a moment, her mouth turned up in a smile. "All of it."


	18. Choices

**Thank you for all the reviews and a special thank you to those who hadn't reviewed before. It was great hearing from you! Please continue to let me know what you think. :)**

**Now, onto the next chapter! Also, please don't hate me….**

We were out. Now we just had to tackle the problem of getting off the roof in one piece.

A problem that turned out to not be as much of a problem as I anticipated. We had no rope or parachute to allow us to get down to the ground. The only equipment Brad had bothered to bring was his gun and extra ammo. But that didn't matter, because, as Fallon joyfully pointed out, we had me.

So I ended up shuttling people to the ground in my dragon form, which, wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I was still having trouble flying, let alone flying while carrying someone, so, to get down, I simply used my wings as a parachute and glided to the ground. The landing was the hardest part. I had to make sure I got my feet securely on the floor, as well as the person's I was carrying, while making sure I wouldn't fall forward on top of the person. And then, on top of that, I had to actually fly back up to the roof to get the next person. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time Jet and I safely landed on the ground.

Shifting back, I turned to the seer-girl, "Are you coming with us?"

She glanced between me and Brad. "For now," she said, "I'm Eloise, by the way."

I smiled politely at her. "Marina."

"I know."

Yeah, I had already realized that. What I wanted to know was how did she know.

We all made our way over to Brad's car. I was beginning to realize just how compact it was. Even though we didn't have Lila with us, we still had six people and five seats.

Brad unlocked the car and opened the driver's side door. Jet opened the passenger and motioned for me to get inside, offering me more room in front. I frowned at him. That didn't make sense—Jet and Brad were the guys and bigger than Fallon, Eloise and me. Of course, Tommy was a guy too, but he had always been on the leaner side. Both Jet and Brad had a significant amount of muscle on their upper bodies—muscle that would make things squishier than necessary if one of them were to sit in the back.

That was why Tommy, Fallon, Eloise, and I piled in the back of Brad's Charger, Fallon half sitting on my lap. It certainly wasn't going to be the most comfortable of rides.

Everyone was silent. I was sure that they were all thinking about what had happened in the facility like I was. I tried not to think about it, but there were so many things that didn't make sense. The most obvious being the fact that the hunters were imprisoning supernaturals other than shapeshifters. According to Brad, they weren't even supposed to know about other supernaturals. Someone had lied. Either Brad was lied to directly by his parents, or Brad's whole family had been lied to by someone higher up. The question was why?

After about an hour, Brad spotted a gas station with a small convenience store on our right. He pulled off the road and was about to park in one of the two spots outside the store when Eloise started yelling at him.

"Get back on the road!" she shouted in his ear (well, everyone's ear), "Quick! There are guards here!"

Wincing Brad said, "How do you know?"

"I just had a vision, of course!" she yelled, not lowering her voice.

Brad pressed down on the gas and pulled back out onto the road. I had a feeling he didn't do it because he believed Eloise, but to get her to stop shouting.

I turned around in my seat, watching the gas station. Sure enough, two seconds after we were back on the road, a man and a woman, both dressed in the same uniform the guards from the facility wore, stepped out of the convenience store.

We didn't try to stop again until we crossed back into Utah. After what happened back at the first gas station, Brad insisted on taking only back roads, and a route that wasn't the direct one. While I understood why he was doing it, I couldn't help but think how it meant we would be spending _more_ time in the car.

Normally, I wouldn't have minded spending so much time in the car, even squished the way we were, but I had to spend that time with Eloise. Once she warned us about the guards in the convenience store she didn't shut up. But it wasn't mindless babble that came out of her mouth—oh no—it was much worse.

She talked about _me_.

And Brad, and Jet, but I was definitely her favorite subject.

"So, Marina," she asked, "Have you made a decision yet?"

"A decision?" I repeated, still wondering how she knew my name.

"Yeah, have you decided who you want as your boyfriend? Jet or Brad?"

My eyes widened at her. I was sure both Jet and Brad's eyes had widened in the front.

She shook her head. "Oh, how silly of me," she said, "I'm sorry. You haven't picked one yet. I got my days mixed up."

It was too much. "How do you know our names? And how do you know I need to choose between Jet and Brad?"

Eloise looked at me like I was missing something obvious. "I'm a seer," she said, "I've been seeing glimpses of your future for a long time now."

"Why me?"

She shrugged. "You're my subject."

_Great_.

When I didn't say anything, Eloise kept talking…and didn't stop.

"Personally, I think they're both amazing guys," she continued, "I understand why you're having a hard time choosing."

I wanted to bury my head in the ground, or at least stick my head out the window. Didn't she understand that Jet and Brad were sitting right up front and could hear every word she was saying?

"They're both good kissers," Eloise said, as if she was remembering from experience.

Up front, Brad tensed while Jet turned his head ever so slightly to look at Eloise, clearly wondering whether or not she was actually saying what she was.

"When you and Jet kiss, it's like you fit together perfectly," she elaborated, "But, oh, when you and Brad kissed, it was _so_ romantic."

I could feel my cheeks turn red in embarrassment at her comment. I didn't think Jet knew Brad and I had kissed, and I hadn't exactly planned on telling him. Of course, Tommy didn't know any of this, and probably wasn't enjoying the in depth look into my love life. Fallon, on the other hand, seemed to enjoying herself immensely, even if it was only for everyone's discomfort.

"And then there's looks—not to sound superficial," Eloise said enthusiastically, "—but those can be important too.

"They're both extremely hot. I would even go as far as to say that they're drop-dead-gorgeous. But of course you already know this. I know you've seen Jet naked but not Brad."

_Naked_? Did she really have no filter?

"And they've both seen you naked—more than once—if I remember correctly," she said, then leaned in closer to me, but didn't make an effort to lower her voice, "I'm not sure if you realize this, but they're both really turned on by the sight of you naked."

Nope. Definitely no filter there.

This time I actually buried my face in Fallon's back. I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

Eloise went on for the next two hours.

It was getting dark when we passed a sign that said "Nevada Welcomes You." Jet suggested we stop at a motel for the night, but Eloise insisted otherwise, claiming that we would be caught if we stayed in any kind of hotel or motel. While we all rolled our eyes when she said this, we weren't taking any chances after what happened back at the gas station in Arizona.

I resolved not to say anything though—I was still mortified from Eloise's insight into my love life.

It occurred to me that Eloise could know who I actually ended up picking. She had mentioned something about me picking and getting her days mixed up. Did that mean she had seen me choose either Jet or Brad? I was tempted to ask her, but, at the same time a part of me considered that cheating. If Eloise told me which guy I chose in the future, was it really my decision? Or was I just basing my decision off of who she told me I pick? Or maybe if she told me I'd feel compelled to pick the opposite. But then would I be making the wrong choice? The whole concept just confused me. The future was just too complicated for me, which was probably one of the reasons why I had yet to figure out the prophecy.

"What about the side of the road?" Brad asked.

"Oh yes," Eloise said, "We'll be perfectly safe there."

Great. So not only were we going to have to sleep on the ground but we were also going to have to sleep without a roof over our heads.

Conveniently, Brad had three sleeping bags and four blankets in the trunk of his car along with all his guns and hunting equipment. We set up camp a little ways from the road, just far enough into the brush that if anyone did happen to go down our deserted little back road their lights wouldn't catch sight of Brad's car.

Desperate to escape Eloise's company, I followed Brad further into the desert to collect twigs and stuff to make a fire. Breaking branches from the brush, I collected as much as I could in my arms.

"I just don't get it," Brad said suddenly.

"Don't get what?"

"The hunters." He was frowning at his pile of twigs. It was then I realized how few he had. "They shouldn't have known about those other supernaturals, let alone how to capture them."

"I know." I had been thinking the same thing, but judging by the look on his face, not as much as Brad had.

"Someone must have told them," he said, "I mean, I didn't even know you guys were called shapeshifters until I met you."

I nodded. When we first met he only knew shapeshifters as animals or monsters.

"I should have known about it."

"You couldn't have—" I started but Brad kept talking.

"I should have known that the compound had other supernaturals in it," he said, "I'm the hunter. It's my job to stay one step ahead of the other hunters so you guys don't get hurt." He hung his head. "You couldn't have gotten seriously hurt in there, Marina. You could have gotten killed."

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can't blame yourself," I told him, "Someone has clearly gone behind the other hunters' backs. It's not your fault that this information was kept from you."

"Maybe," he said resignedly, "But I'm going to find out what's really going on."

We headed back to the others after that. I agreed with Brad—we needed to figure out what was going on with the hunters—and why Brad's family didn't know about it. I hoped that perhaps some of those answers would come once we got home.

Jet started walking towards me before I even reached the spot where Fallon had set up our make-shift beds. After shooting a glare in Brad's direction, he jerked his head back away from the rest of the group, asking me to walk with him. I set down my pieces for the fire and followed him out further out into the desert.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as we walked in silence for a minute. Finally, he spoke up, "What were you talking with Brad about?"

I frowned. That wasn't the question I had been expecting. "We talked about what happened in the prison," I answered truthfully.

"Oh." Jet nodded, but he clearly had something else on his mind.

Eloise's monologue from the car sprouted in my head. I really hoped he wasn't about to bring that up.

"That was it?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?" I frowned again.

"Nothing, he just seemed upset," Jet said, "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I wanted to make sure he didn't hurt you."

I looked up at him. He thought—he thought Brad had hurt me? "I'm fine. You know Brad would never do anything to me."

"I didn't mean it that way," he said, "I can't help but be protective of you, Marina. It's like an instinct I can't ignore."

"You don't have to worry about me with I'm with Brad," I told him.

"But I do." He ran a hand through his hair. "I can't help it—I see you with him—I see him touch you and I want to rip his hand from his body."

I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was going. "Jet, look—"

"I'm jealous, Marina."

Neither of us said anything for awhile. After a few minutes, I glanced up at him. He seemed to not want to talk about Brad anymore, and frankly, neither did I. Daring to change the subject, I spoke up. "Umm, I wanted to ask you…"

He raised his eyes to look at me.

"…if you found anything on your mom."

He looked away again, instead focusing his eyes on the setting sun. "She wasn't there."

I sighed. "Well, we always knew it was a long shot—"

"She _was_ there…ten years ago."

My eyes widened in surprise. "So—so she escaped?"

Jet shook his head and closed his eyes. "She was a prisoner there for four years before..." His voice was barely over a whisper. "They took her in to experiment on. Halfway through their procedure, she died."

I immediately pulled him to me, wrapping my arms around him. He held me, resting his head on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Jet," I whispered.

We stayed like that for several minutes. I didn't care if anyone saw us. Jet needed this, he needed me.

Finally, he stepped back, wiping a tear from his eye. Looking back at the horizon, where the sun had disappeared, he said, "I think the worst part is knowing that there was nothing I could do to save her. I didn't even know I was a shapeshifter at the time. I was only seven."

We just stood there, watching the sky until it was completely dark, before returning to the others. No one said anything when we approached, even though I was sure they had seen us. Jet and I settled around the fire—of course I would end up between Jet and Brad.

"I think we should take shifts," Brad said, "Tommy, John, and I."

Both Tommy and Jet nodded.

"Shifts for what?" Fallon asked, looking between the three boys.

"Lookout," Brad clarified, "and to keep the fire going. It's not quite spring yet so it's probably going to get cold."

Our dinner consisted of things we picked up at the convenience store Eloise deemed safe. It wasn't the most nutritious, but it silenced our growling stomachs.

I knew I had been avoiding Eloise ever since we stopped, and I don't think anyone blamed me after what happened in the car. But, at the same time, I knew had to talk to her. Not only was she a seer but she was also a seer who seemed to be focused in on my life—she had to know something about the prophecy.

I settled down on the ground beside her, but before I could even get a word out she stopped me.

"I can't tell you what the prophecy means, Marina," she said.

I frowned. "So you know it? The Porias Prophecy?"

She laughed. "Of course I know it. It's more important than you know."

"So why can't you help me?" I was growing frustrated, but, then again, the prophecy always frustrated me. Brad, Jet, Fallon, and Tommy all leaned in to better hear out conversation. None of them knew exactly what the prophecy said. I probably should have told them—especially Brad since the only thing I knew for sure about it was that it involved him.

"You and Brad need to figure it out together."

"Why me?" Brad asked immediately, "What does this have to do with me?"

Eloise looked between me and Brad. "You haven't told him?" she asked, astonished, "But I know you know it involves him. For goodness sake! Why do you think you both felt my presence back in that hallway? I get visions of you _and_ Brad, not just you, Marina!"

"That déjà vu feeling?" I asked.

"You get visions of my future?" Brad asked at the same time. He sounded slightly petrified by the thought of that..

Eloise smiled, clearly enjoying our confusion. "I guess I'll just have to fill everyone in…but then again I knew I would." She folded her hands in her lap. "To answer Marina's question: yes, sometimes when a person first comes in contact with a seer who has had visions of them the person can experience déjà vu. It is because the seer has seen the person's actions as a part of the future which may have become the past or present to the person it often feels like déjà vu."

I would be lying if I said her explanation cleared the confusion in my head.

"To answer Brad's question: while the Porias Prophecy speaks of 'one of many forms', aka Marina, it also talks about a 'brother descendent.' As the story goes, all shapeshifters are descended from Luka and all hunters are descended from Roe. Since Luka and Roe were brother and sister," Eloise pointed to Brad, "that makes you her brother descendent."

I interrupted her. "That's why you see both of us in your visions?"

Eloise shook her head. "Let me see…how can I explain this without giving anything away?" she asked herself. "It's rather complicated…Okay, there are three different types of seers: ones that sees the future of humans, ones that sees the future of supernaturals, and ones that see the future of other seers. Within those three types there are some seers—like me—who see the future of only certain individuals. Usually, when that happens, the individuals the seer sees are the subjects of an important spoken prophecy.

"Whenever I get a vision I am either seeing it from your eyes, Marina, or from Brad's. With the help of other seers, I discovered that you were both part of the Porias Prophecy."

We all soaked in the new information for Eloise. But after a few minutes, I couldn't take it. "But what's the point of seeing our future if you can't tell us about it? Or even tell us what the prophecy means?"

"Because I can't change the future," Eloise stated, "I can only do my best to guide you. Every decision you make must be your own."

Even though she had a point, I couldn't help but feel that Eloise was getting more annoying by the second.

"Fine," Brad said, "But what exactly does this prophecy say?" Even though the question was directed at Eloise, his eyes were on me when he asked it.

I sighed then recited the words that had been haunting me for months. "_When red tints Roe, the war of light will begin__. __Those of the rainbow will be the first plagued__. __Magus will bare them and fill the dark with fear. But one of many forms will ascend and change__the course of fate for a brother Descendant__. __Together, the one will lead, embracing light to fight. Only one can join the sun at dawn.__" _Everyone was silent as I finished.

"So we're going to fight a war against each other?" Brad asked, breaking the silence.

"What?" I exclaimed, "No! What gave you that idea?"

Brad looked at me gravely. "Well, it mentions the course of my fate being changed and something about only one living to see the sunrise."

I ran through the prophecy in my head again. He was right, but that didn't mean we would be against each other, did it? It could be talking about someone else at the end. It had to be referring to someone else.

"You're not going to fight each other," Jet said, butting in, "The prophecy said you'll fight together."

Brad looked wary. "I hope you're right," he said, "But what about the rest of it? What does it mean?"

For the next hour we debated meanings of the prophecy, not really coming up with anything substantial. We kept pestering Eloise to tell us if we were in the right direction but, for once, she kept her mouth shut.

"We're getting nowhere," Fallon said finally, "I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

We all agreed with her. Sleep sounded awfully inviting—the only problem now was that I couldn't stop thinking about the prophecy.

"I'll take the first shift," Brad said, then turning to Jet added, "I'll wake you are three hours."

Jet nodded before lying down on one of the blankets. I took a sleeping bag between Fallon and Eloise—not wanting to cause any more bed issues.

I laid there thinking about the prophecy and the prison and the tribe. I thought about Brad and I thought about Jet. I even thought about Tommy—we still hadn't learned why or how he was taken to the prison. I wasn't sure how long I laid awake, but when Eloise's snores escalated to that of a snorting pig, I figured sleep wasn't going to come to me anytime soon.

I slid out of the sleeping bag and went over to sit with Brad on the back of his car.

He watched me as I climbed up next to him. "What are you doing up?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep."

He glanced back at our friends asleep around the fire. "I'm surprised Fallon hasn't suffocated Eloise with a pillow or something yet," he laughed.

I smiled. "Fallon sleeps with earplugs in," I told him, "otherwise Eloise would definitely be dead by now."

We both laughed, so hard our bodies shook the car. When our laughter finally died down, Brad looked over to me.

"Why didn't you tell me about the prophecy?" he asked.

I looked away. I should have told him, I knew that. "I was scared," I admitted, "I have no clue what it means so I tried to ignore it, pretend it didn't exist."

He sighed. "You should have trusted me," he said, "I can help you. You're not in this alone."

"I know."

He turned towards me. His blonde hair stood out in the moonlight. "I care about you. I would never let anything hurt you," he said seriously, "I love you, Marina."

I turned my head to look at his face, but I didn't have to look at him to know he was being sincere. "I know."

The corner of his lips turned up in a half smile. "That's not exactly the response I was hoping for."

I opened my mouth but he put his finger over my lips, silencing me.

"No, let me guess…I know?"

I smiled under his finger. He lowered his hand, allowing me to speak.

"I do love you, Brad," I told him, "but I love Jet too." I couldn't look him in the eye when I finished my sentence. He didn't say anything—we were both silent for a minute.

"Let me kiss you," he said suddenly.

My head snapped up. "Wha—what?"

He gave a sharp nod. "Let me kiss you," he repeated. He looked determined—as if kissing me would solve everything.

I was skeptical. Us kissing in the first place was one of the reasons my love life was in shambles.

His expression softened. "Please." His crystal blue eyes pleaded with me.

I felt my head move up and down very slowly.

Brad leaned in closer to me, placing a hand behind each ear, working his fingers into my tangled hair. He guided my head towards his, tilting it so our lips could meet. When his lips touched mine I could tell he was hesitant—it was only the lightest feel of skin. But then a desire took over and the kiss became firmer, more intense. Soon, I found that he wasn't just kissing me but I was kissing him back. I moved my mouth over his, savoring the taste and feel that was every bit him while also feeling his hunger for every bit of me.

But just as my heart was telling me to go for it, my mind flashed me an image of Jet. I quickly broke away from Brad and jumped off the car, knowing I was leaving him hanging. I had to get away—I had to sort things through. I turned my back to Brad only to find myself face to face…with Jet.

Had he seen me and Brad kissing?

Jet stared at me with accusing eyes, his jaw clenched.

Oh yes, he definitely saw.


	19. Good Riddance

**Thank you thank you thank you for all the awesome reviews! And today, I have to give an extra thanks to the guests who keep leaving those long, thoughtful ones—I love reading them!**

**And now the moment you've all been waiting for…. I hope everyone LOVES this chapter! I know I do…I seriously couldn't stop smiling while writing it ;)**

Jet didn't say anything to me. His eyes still blazing with anger, he turned and marched off towards the road.

I glanced back at Brad—I really shouldn't leave him like this—he deserved an explanation. But I couldn't let Jet run off either. In a split second, I made my decision and took off after Jet.

"Jet!" I yelled into the night, but he didn't turn around, instead he picked up his pace. "Jet!" I yelled again. He still didn't answer me. At this point I had to jog to keep up with him. "Jet!"

I watched as he lifted his t-shirt over his head and tossed it on the side of the road. He was going to shift and then really run off. Technically, I could follow him, but I knew he wouldn't want me to.

I dug my toes into the dirt. "Damn you," I said more to myself than to him.

But my words made him stop. He slowly turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. "What did you say?" he asked.

I paused; taken aback not only by the fact that he had heard me but that he'd even bothered to turn around. I looked up at him, and, staring right into his green eyes, shouted, "Damn you!"

He raised his eyebrows. "Damn me?" he asked as if he'd heard me correctly.

"Yes, that's right! Damn you!" I was still shouting but I didn't care if anyone heard me anymore. "What do you want me to say, Jet?"

He stared at me, eyes remaining slits of anger.

"I know you saw me and Brad kissing. You want me to tell you that I liked it?" I balled my hands into fists. I was going to lose it any second, I could feel it. Pressure seemed to be building up all over my body, but mostly in my throat and behind my eyes. "Is that what you want to hear?!"

"So that's it then?" he asked, waving his hand in the air dismissively, "You've picked him? That's how you really feel?"

"Why don't you ask me?" A single tear broke through the barrier and leaked out onto my cheek.

"What?"

I didn't answer right away but when I finally got the courage to speak, my voice was only a whisper. "Ask me how I really feel."

He frowned at my request, clearly confused as to where I was going with it, but he asked me anyway. "How do you really feel?"

I smiled sadly at him. "Confused," I admitted, "I care about you and Brad, and I don't want to lose either of you. My mind goes one way and my heart goes another, and then they flip flop. I don't know which to trust." I felt my feet inch closer to him.

"If it involves love shouldn't you go with your heart?" he asked, going along with my rant.

"That's what I thought at first. But see I've learned that love isn't the only emotion that resides in my heart. So I had to put my heart, and my mind aside—after all logic really should have no place in this.

"I have to go with my gut. I have to choose based on what I want, based on what my body wants. I've noticed that there's one person I always look to—that I always gravitate towards. While I love you both, there is only one person I _need_ to be with." My feet took two more steps closer to him.

Jet sighed and looked down at the pavement. "You need him," he said, "You two are connected by the prophecy."

I laughed, shaking my head.

He looked up at me, surprised by my sudden mood swing.

"Yes, we're connected, but I don't care about that. Screw the prophecy," I said, still smiling, "I need _you,_ Jet."

Before I could even get another word out, the few steps that had been between us were filled, and I was lifted off my feet. Jet's lips were on mine and I didn't hesitate to kiss him back. I wound my arms around the back of his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist as he held me off the ground. The pressure I felt building up only a few moments was released in a fury of passion.

It had been _way_ too long since I'd kissed Jet.

Everything about him was familiar—it was like returning to your favorite vacation spot after years of absence to find that nothing has changed. Every emotion he'd held back since that day in the hospital came seeping through in one kiss: his desire, his pain, his fervor, but most of all, his love. I always knew he loved me, but I had never felt his love like this. Just as I needed him, I could feel his need for me.

Our lips parted and we both took quick breaths in. He pressed his forward to mine as he slowly set me back down. I didn't move my arms from his neck, while he snaked his around my hips.

"I love you," he whispered.

I opened my eyes to find his beautiful green eyes watching me—eyes that always seemed to find their way into my dreams—waking and sleeping. "I love you too," I whispered back, unable to stop the corners of my mouth from turning up in a smile—but why would I want to stop myself from smiling anyway? Everything about this moment was perfect. I didn't want it to end.

I pulled his head back down to me. Tracing his lips with my own, I memorized every curve before digging deeper. He parted his lips and my tongue took the chance to explore his mouth. Our tongues entwined as our lips grappled for more.

One of my hands slid down from his neck, over his shoulder to his bare chest, but I didn't get to keep it there very long. He pulled me closer to him—pressing my body firmly to his—a hand smoothing the fabric covering my back. With one arm tightly around his neck and the other resting on the skin of his shoulder, he pulled me closer still so that every curve or crevice of my body was filled by a part of his. A hand moved up my back and slithered beneath a strap of my dress, sneakily caressing the skin there until the strap slipped from my shoulder. He moved his lips off of mine, leaving a trail of kisses and blazing breath from my mouth, down my neck, and to my collarbone, sending smoldering shivers skating down my back and limbs.

He pulled his lips from my skin. I didn't want him to stop—and I didn't think he did either.

Slowly letting a breath out, he warmed the flesh there even though it already felt like it was on fire from his kisses. He lifted his head up, and removed a hand from my back, carefully placing the strap of my dress back on my shoulder.

Meeting my wistful eyes, he ran his fingers through the edge of my hair. "You're so beautiful," he said, his voice husky.

I gave him a dubious look. "I'm basically wearing rags."

He chuckled and his eyes twinkled with that same laughter. "My little Cinderella then."

I rolled my eyes but laughed too.

The roar of an engine dampened my state of euphoria. Brad. How could I have forgotten about him? He had probably been watching Jet and I the whole time. My cheeks heartened in embarrassment as I turned to see Brad's black Charger pull back onto the road. I started to walk towards his car but he pressed down on the gas and sped away from me, not even sparing me a glance.

Crap.

Why hadn't I considered what Brad would do if he saw me and Jet? Oh right. Because when I'm kissing Jet I can't think of anything but him. Normally I loved that about him, but now wasn't one of those times—it had possibly cost me my ally—an ally that, according to the prophecy, I would need. Was this what the prophecy was talking about? Had Brad been right when he said we would fight against each other? Would this be how one of my best friends turns into my enemy?

A hand came to rest on my shoulder—Jet's hand. "Don't worry," he said, reading my mind, "He'll be back."

"How do you know?"

"Because he needs to blow off some steam. He knows he just lost you, give him some time to himself."

I nodded but I couldn't help but think of the prophecy. Jet said the prophecy should be interpreted as Brad and I working together, and I wanted to believe him—I really did—but I was finding it hard to do.

"He knew this was only going to turn out one of two ways. Either he would get you or I would, and I won," Jet said a matter-of-factly.

"You're being awfully cocky tonight," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and raising my eyebrows at him.

He shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, as he grabbed my hand and twirled me around so that my arms were no longer crossed, placing me, instead, with my back to him and his arms around me. "I got my girl back," he said, but then his voice turned more serious, "and I'm never going to let you go again, Marina."

His grip around me tightened as I soaked in the meaning of his words. He wanted to be with me—possibly forever. I smiled at the thought. After a few seconds, he dropped my arms, ending the embrace. I knew he had meant figuratively when he said he wouldn't let me go, but, at the moment, I kind of wanted him to mean literally.

"Come on," Jet said leading me away from the road, "Let's go back. You should get at least some sleep tonight."

"And what about you?" I asked, placing plenty of innuendos behind my words.

Jet smiled brazenly at me, immediately picking up on my true meaning and placing an arm over my shoulders. "While I would love to take you up on your offer, with Brad gone, I should probably stand guard."

"You wouldn't have to fall asleep..." I told him, raising my eyebrows.

"After three months of keeping my hands to myself do you really think I could lay next to you without doing anything?"

I pursed my lips, giving him a pleading look despite knowing he was only trying to be a gentleman. "Maybe..." I ran my hands down his sides, placing them on his hips. I knew I was being evil—trying to tempt him—but I couldn't help it. I had missed Jet so much.

He groaned. Firmly taking hold of my hands, he said, "Marina, I can't. We're not alone, you know."

"I know, but a few kisses aren't going to wake anyone. My shouting didn't."

He looked up to the night sky, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yes, but I wouldn't be able to stop myself after 'a few kisses,'" he admitted, "I had to struggle for control when you kissed me back there."

The feel of him pulling the strap of my dress until it fell off my shoulder came to mind. I took the hand he'd released and used it to draw small circles on his shoulder. Looking down at my feet, I whispered, "Maybe I don't want you to stop after a few kisses."

His head snapped back down to me, wondering if I meant what he thought I did.

I bit down on my bottom lip.

His eyes searched mine then slowly travelled down my torso all the way to my bare feet and back up again. Instead of meeting my eyes once more, he looked away—I didn't have to hear his thoughts to know a war was waging inside of him. Finally he looked back to me and sighed. "You know I would love to, but we can't. Not right now." His eyes darted down to my chest for a second before returning to my face, and I thought he might reconsider. "Besides, we don't know when Brad will be back."

That last bit broke my mood. He was right. Brad returning to find Jet and I lying together would just be cruel. "Okay," I muttered.

He smiled sadly at me. "Another time," he said, leaning over and planting a kiss on my forehead, "Now go get some rest."

I wrapped my arms around his midsection, resting my cheek against his chest. He put his arms around me too and just held me for a few minutes. I felt like he was soaking up all my anxieties, and I immediately felt relieved. I took a deep breath in and smiled. In that moment, I was convinced everything would be okay.

*/*/*/*

That idea died with the rising sun.

I woke the next morning to shouting. For a brief second, I thought I was home again, and the shouting voices belonged to my mom and Cole. But then I recognized them. The first was Fallon and the second was…Jet?

With my head still under the blanket, I hoped they would stop yelling and let me go back to sleep. Of course, they didn't. I knew Fallon and Jet weren't exactly best buds but I had thought they'd at least have the composure not to start a shouting match with each other.

I peeked out to get a glimpse of the scene. I really didn't want to intervene, but they were my friends—well, friend and boyfriend—I corrected myself when I recalled the events of the night before.

"This is your fault!" Fallon screamed at Jet, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"How is this my fault?" he bellowed back, not even trying to keep his voice down.

"If you hadn't made out with Marina then everything would still be fine! I.e. your fault!" she shot back.

"She picked me!" Jet shouted, "What was I supposed to do? Nod and thank her?!"

"Actually, Fallon, it's not John's fault." Eloise butted in, something that I was sure was only going to make Fallon angrier, "If you would like to place blame on someone it should be Marina. But you should know that I've only ever seen her choose John. Besides, doesn't this work out better for you?"

Fallon stared at Eloise for a second—she looked like she was ready to burst. Then she pointed her finger at Eloise. "You," she said, "You can shut up right now." Then she turned back to Jet and yelled, "And you. You could have been more subtle about it!"

"I love her!" Jet said, getting right up in Fallon's face—crap, he was in knock out range—"I was subtle for three months. I am never going to be subtle around her again and I refuse to apologize for it."

"Yeah, well, good going, Mr. Subtlty," Fallon said, her eyes slits and her hands twitching, "You got us stuck here."

It was at that moment that I decided to pull myself out from under the blanket to go and break up the fight. Wiping the gunk from the corners of eyes, I said, "What's going on? What are you two arguing about?"

Jet immediately pulled me into his arms, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "Nothing," he said, "Fallon is overreacting."

"I am not." Beyond Jet's protection I could see Fallon glaring at Jet—or maybe it was me now—for allowing her enemy to hold me?

I glanced up at Jet, looking for an answer, but his eyes were still on Fallon.

"You are," he told her.

I turned my gaze on Eloise since she seemed to be the more neutral party—although she had told Fallon to blame me for whatever the problem was.

Eloise met my gaze but all she said was, "She is."

I sighed and stepped out of Jet's arms. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

Tommy approached us then, his forehead brimming with sweat. "I ran a little over a mile down the road to see if I could find anything, but there's nothing," he said, and looked over to me, "Brad's gone."

"You mean he isn't back yet?" I asked, worry leaking into my tone as I turned back to Jet.

Jet shook his head.

Oh no. Eloise was right. This really was my fault. It had been hours since Brad drove off in his car. He could be home by now. Jet had been convinced last night that he just wanted some time to himself, but how much time did he really need? Surely not this much? I knew he wouldn't leave us here…or would he? Even though I only caught a glimpse of his face as he drove by last night, I could tell he was furious. I wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to see me again.

"I saw this coming," Eloise stated simply.

I thought Fallon was going to jump her right then and there. "Then why the hell didn't you stop him from leaving?"

"I can't change the future."

This time I was with Fallon. If Eloise had intervened for once, maybe Brad wouldn't have run off and we wouldn't be stuck by the side of the road.

"You and her need to relax," Eloise said, gesturing to Fallon and me, "He'll be back."

"You've seen him in your visions?" I asked, then added, "Recently?" Normally, I would avoid asking Eloise what she'd seen in any visions for fear of further embarrassment, but this was a dire situation.

"Of course." She shrugged like it was no big deal.

Fallon looked ready to punch her, but somehow managed to hold back. "Don't you think you should have mentioned this when we first noticed he was missing?" she asked through her teeth, "You sure he's okay? And coming back to get us?"

"Yeah," Eloise said, "but we have a few hours to kill."

A few hours to kill? I looked around—there was nothing in sight—what were we going to do in the middle of the desert for a few hours?

This seemed to be on everyone's mind because no one was smiling at the moment.

"I think there's a gas station and a diner about four miles down the road," Tommy said, pointing in the direction from which he'd come running and Brad had driven towards last night, "We could maybe get something for breakfast there?"

We all consented that that was our best option. Either that or sit in the dirt and wait for Brad to show.

Walking four miles without shoes wasn't fun. Since Jet's shoes were too big for me, I had elected to leave them in Brad's car, thinking that if I needed them they would be right there. Of course the world just loved to prove me wrong.

Jet made the walk easier though. He insisted on giving me a piggy back ride for the last two miles when my feet started to burn from the hot ground. There were some definite perks to having him as my boyfriend again—although, I was sure he would have done the same thing even if I hadn't picked him last night.

The diner was very old. It definitely looked like something from the fifties, and I wondered if the place had done any upgrades since then. While the waitress noticed my dirty, burning feet, she didn't say anything. I had a feeling the diner wasn't in any place to turn away customers.

She led the five of us to a table by the window, handing us menus and telling us she would be back to take our order. Jet sat to my right while Eloise took the seat on the end to my left. Fallon positioned herself in the seat across from me, closest to the window. She didn't even open her menu—her eyes remained on the road outside. Despite Eloise's vision and confidence, Fallon clearly wasn't so sure Brad would return.

The waitress returned less than a minute later—she probably had no idea how long it actually took for someone to decide what to eat, but then again, it was a very small menu. Jet and I both ordered waffles while Tommy ordered an omelet and Fallon ordered pancakes (she was getting the hang of the restaurant thing). Eloise, on the other hand, didn't say anything when the waitress asked her what she wanted.

"Eloise?" I asked, trying to get her attention, but she wouldn't look at me. I followed her line of vision—she seemed to be staring at the clock on the wall—trying to force time to move faster.

That's when I realized she couldn't be watching the clock, she could be seeing something that the rest of us couldn't. She was having a vision.

I quickly turned to the waitress. "Uhh, she's fine," I said lamely, but I could tell the waitress didn't exactly believe me. Not that I blamed her. By now everyone was staring at Eloise.

Finally she looked down and then back up at the rest of the table. "Sorry," she said casually, "I zoned out for a minute there. I'll have an omelet."

The waitress looked at Eloise like she was crazy—which I was beginning to wonder if she was—but then wrote down her order and walked away. Once she was gone, I leaned in closer to Eloise.

"What did you see?" I asked.

She raised her eyebrows at me then slowly a smile crept onto her face. "I knew you'd catch on," she said, "But I can't tell you…"

"Of course not." Fallon groaned.

"…but I can tell you that I won't be staying with you much longer," Eloise finished.

"What? Why?" I asked immediately. While Eloise was definitely annoying and I had probably had some of my most embarrassing moments with her, her presence had given me hope that I would figure out the prophecy and things would work out. I mean, having someone who can see the future on your side is definitely an advantage in my book.

Eloise sighed. "That, I also can't tell you." She unfolded her napkin and carefully placed it on her lap. "But don't worry, I'll be back once you figure out the prophecy."

Once I figure out the prophecy? But that could take forever? How will I know when I've got it right?

"So, once Brad comes back I'll need to be dropped off at the next bus station," she said, taking a sip of the water in front of her. She acted like this was no big deal. Like her plans changed so drastically all the time. Who knows? Maybe they actually did. Trying to shape your life around things that haven't happened yet couldn't be easy.

We were silent for the rest of our meal. Everyone—me included—had plenty to think about. I thought about the prophecy, what awaited me at home, and, of course, Brad. Every time my forehead creased, Jet would reach for my hand under the table and squeeze it in a reassuring kind of way. His gesture never failed to put a smile back on my face.

Brad showed up an hour after we finished our meals. He pulled into the gas station, but didn't even get out of the car. Fallon climbed in the front seat next to him while Eloise, Tommy, Jet and I squeezed in the back.

I wanted to say something to him but couldn't think of anything. Nothing I said would make him feel better. He wouldn't even look at me. He definitely didn't want to talk to me. Fallon told Brad how we had to drop Eloise off, but after that everyone remained quiet. Out of respect for Brad, I had positioned myself all the way on the right, with Eloise next to me—well, the reason for that was probably more so Jet and I wouldn't be tempted to touch each other.

I watched Brad the whole ride but he never took his eyes off the road. It was when we reached Las Vegas that Brad pulled into a bus station to let Eloise out. I climbed out of the car to let her out and everyone else followed, eager to get the chance to stretch their legs.

"Thank you all," Eloise said dramatically, then turned to Brad, "And you shouldn't worry. Everything happens for a reason." She winked at him. From the looks of it, Brad wasn't too pleased with Eloise's advice for him.

I needed to ask her something—something that I'd been thinking about ever since she first mentioned changing the future. With everyone still congregated around the car, I pulled Eloise aside. "Can I ask you something about visions in general?"

She nodded.

"Do they always come true?"

Eloise frowned. "You're referring to the prophecy aren't you?"

It was my turn to nod.

She sighed. "Sometimes visions change," she said, "but prophecies are different. They always come true one way or another. I'm sorry. I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for."

I shook my head. I had had a feeling she would say that. I was just going to have to accept that whatever was in the prophecy was going to happen. "Thanks anyway."

We walked back to the group where Eloise insisted on giving everyone an awkward hug. "I'm sure I will see you all again soon!" she said, as she began to walk away. "Oh, and you two?" She pointed between Jet and I. "Don't forget that I might be watching."

My eyes widened at her comment. Watching? What the hell did she mean by that? And why did she say it to me and Jet—oh… My cheeks turned bright pink.

Eloise smiled and walked over to the doors to the station where she turned and waved to us enthusiastically. We returned her wave half-heartedly.

"Good riddance," Fallon said, dropping her smile as soon as Eloise turned her back.

"Seriously," Jet said, actually agreeing with Fallon for once.

"It's weird," Tommy said thoughtfully, watching Eloise walk inside.

"What is?" I asked.

"There's nothing in any text I've read about seers being so goddamn annoying."

Everyone—even Brad—laughed at that.


End file.
